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THE 



White Angel 



OF 



THE WO^liD, 



THAT FORETELLS THE FREEDOM OF THE NATIONS FROM THE 
EVILS OF STRONG DRINK. 




Rev, Saxu'l W. Small, A.M., D.D., 

(President of Utah University, Author of " Pleas for Prohibition, 

and. Other Works,) 

• "- 

IN COLLABORATION WITH 

CHAFES JKOHSIS, esq. 



+w^^=±= 



Peerless Publishing Co., 

704 ARCH STREET, 

PHILADELPHIA, IP A. 






Copyright 1891, SAMUEL LOAG, 



PREFACE. 



T S God alive ? Is Christ still the Saviour of the world ? 
■*• Will this problem of evil among men ever be solved? 
Yea, verily; yet one, purblind through sin or lack of faith, 
might not unreasonably repeat these startling queries. When 
we consider the knowledge that human experience has spread 
before rulers and statesmen, and the unchanging command- 
ments of God which are ever before his priests and people, 
the continued presence of the liquor traffic in the world is 
indeed (( a crime against man and a sin against God." 

What we here have written and present to the intelligent, 
patriotic, and Christian reader has been written under the 
influence of such a burning conviction. The story speaks 
for itself. It has been our endeavor, in giving a brief his- 
tory of the reign of intemperance and the modern movement 
in favor of temperance reform, to ' ' set down naught in mal- 
ice, ' ' to avoid any spirit of partisanship, and to keep strictly 
within the limits of ascertained fact. The record of intem- 
perance indeed needs no more than a bare presentation to 
make of it a story of startling significance. It is a tragedy 
of high dramatic intensity, full of the elements of the sad- 
dening and the terrible ; and the simplest statement of the 
saturnalia of crime to which alcohol has given rise, the 



IV PREFACE. 

misery and degradation into which it has cast millions of 
human beings, the horror of its whole sad history, should 
suffice to teach mankind the suicidal nature of the course 
which has been so long pursued. 

We have no word of accusation for the victims of intem- 
perance. Their yielding to the insidious temptation of the 
wine-cup is due to weakness, not to sin, and there should be 
held out to them the hand of charity for their fault and 
sympathy with their weakness, with heedful avoidance of 
the " I-am-better-than-thou" spirit, and of harshness and 
denunciation where appeal to the better nature of the erring 
is alone demanded. Nor do we write with any feeling of bit- 
terness toward the advocates of strong drink. They are, as 
a rule, honest in their advocacy, and open to conviction if it 
can be shown to them that they are wrong in their views, 
and that the custom which they uphold is one that has been 
of the utmost injury to mankind. The verdict of recent 
science as to the seriously hurtful effects of alcohol on the 
body and mind of those who yield to its fascination is a 
lesson which all should study, the inebriate and the moder- 
ate drinker as well as the abstinent, and a knowledge of 
which cannot but add strength to the good resolutions of 
the weak and give a useful direction to the energies of the 
strong. 

The temperance reform in America during the present 
century is the main topic of the following pages : it can 
scarcely fail to prove an instructive and interesting one. 
Not that its story is claimed to be told here with any 
special eloquence or wealth of illustration, but that the 
subject in itself is so full of absorbing interest that, how- 
ever haltingly it be presented, it can scarcely fail to prove 
attractive. 

We have but sought to tell u a plain, unvarnished tale," 
giving the successive steps of progress made by nineteenth- 



PREFACE. V 

century temperance and the measures adopted for its prop- 
agation, with such side-light of anecdotal illustration as 
may serve as a foil to the innate seriousness of the subject. 
The writer, in throwing his book upon the world, can only- 
hope that it may serve to guide some of the weak and err- 
ing into the harbor of reform, and help to break the fetters 
of others who have long been bond-slaves to strong drink. 



V ^ ^ ^J^?1 ? ^^ 








AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



REV. SAMUEL WHITE SMALL, A.M., D.D., 

PRESIDENT OF UTAH UNIVERSITY, 

Author of " The White Angel of the World," " Pleas for Prohibi- 
tion," " Old Si's Sayings," Etc., Etc. 



" O thou child of many prayers ! 
Life hath quicksands — life hath snares !" 

Longfellow. 

" Happy he 
With such a mother ! . . . 
. . . though he trip and fall, 
He shall not blind his soul with clay !" 

Tennyson. 

CONFESSIONS are crucifixions. They are seldom 
^-^ voluntarily suffered, unless for expiation or the profit 
of posterity. 

Having endured the unspeakable humiliations of such 
crucifixion of self at the foot of the Cross of Christ, and 
there found pardon for my sins, I may be borne with if, for 
the sake of those who may read and profit by my example, 
I give to the public some record of my sad misspendings and 
misdoings. I only ask that these revelations be read with the 
remembrance that they are the actual experiences of a living 
mortal man, and of whom it can be said that he came to 

7 



8 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Christ, "and His Name, through faith in His name, hath 
made this man strong, whom ye see and know; yea, the faith 
which is by Him hath given him this present soundness in 
presence of you all." 

Many persons interested in temperance reform, undoubt- 
edly desirous to see the great curse of the race effectually 
dealt with, are yet confident that it is an evil that will bear 
only ameliorative treatment. They are not yet convinced 
that it is a radical vice, parented in these days for each new 
generation by a system of traffic fostered by law, and sure to 
augment the number of its victims in proportion to the 
sanction and license it obtains. They will not admit that it 
has become a throat disease of the nation, as malignant and 
fatal to its subjects as was the epithelioma to the noble and 
lamented emperor Frederick of Germany, or the cancerous 
malady in the mouth of the heroic Ulysses S. Grant. They 
will not consent that the logical and legal method — general 
and absolute prohibition — which is the ultimatum of all 
ancient and modern polity concerning crying public evils, 
can be applied effectively to this national affliction. 

Why this tremendous system of personal and public injury 
should not be denounced as malum prohibitum by general 
consent and governmental decree they are not able to con- 
veniently and convincingly explain. To exhibit, by the 
indisputable record of a life-experience, that any other 
method of dealing with the curse than the stern criminali- 
zation of the traffic which breeds and bestrews it is irra- 
tional, ineffectual, and inharmonious with the principles of 
Christian charity and goodly government, is the prime motive 
to the making of these confessions. 

The actual trials, the defeats or triumphs, of living men, 
subjects of the like passions and infirmities, have always 
been most highly esteemed. They are lessons and warnings; 
they are embodied truth and exemplified error; they are the 



REV. SAMUEL WHITE SMALL, A. M, D. D. 9 

heralds of hope or the prophets of despair. The human 
mind cannot be divorced from its large dependence upon 
exemplarism. Both the troubled man and the triumphing 
man have each his Fidus Achates in some fellow-spirit who 
had kindred harassments or similar hopes. It is only the odd 
man of the world — the non-compos, the Napoleon of his 
class — who will trust his special superstition, or his "star of 
destiny, ' ' to direct his energies and encourage his enthusiasm. 
No myth or fiction can exert a continuous force on human 
character. The forceful romance, when it has a great motive, 
is born out of the travail of a great emergency. Cervantes 
introduced to the disgusted common sense of Spain his 
whimsical knight "Don Quixote," and the people exalted 
the caricature with riotous delight and "laughed Spain's 
chivalry to scorn." The power of the work exhausted 
itself upon the emergency which produced it and in which 
it was victorious. Ever since it has been no more than an 
amusing literary curiosity — the enduring epitaph of a ridic- 
ulous and deceased institution. Mrs. Stowe wrote Uncle 
Torn* s Cabin, and out from its covers, as from a cave of 
winds, came mighty gusts of passionate protest that fanned 
a revolution into fury, brought to pass the emancipation of 
millions from bondage, and threw down forever the institu- 
tion of slavery in this nation. The book expended its power 
upon its enemy. Now it is no more than an esteemed 
memorial; it has no more living purpose that the proclama- 
tions of Jefferson Davis, or the clauses of the Confederate 
Constitution. 

The full gamut of human experience is set in every spirit 
of man. This is the key to the mystery of ' ' history repeat- 
ing itself." History is but recorded human experience. 
Herein lies the infinite love, wisdom, and mercy of God's 
gift of His only-begotten Son. The living, humanized 
Christ, with a genealogy and a history, has a stronger, surer 



IO AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

power to save than the promised and prophesied Christ. If 
the book of Job was really the first of the canonical Scrip- 
tures published among men, we readily find the secret of its 
power in this, that it is the record of a man. Millions have 
been moved to fight the good fight and win the victory that 
•overcometh the world by the help of Job's example, because 
he was a kinsman after the flesh. Millions more have per- 
severed and perfected holiness by the help of David, because 
he was human. Millions have profited by the proverbs and 
preaching of Solomon, because he was a fellow-spirit who 
sinned, suffered, and was saved by faith. So, likewise, when 
Christ came and lived among men, became Himself " a man 
•of sorrows acquainted with grief," gathered unto Himself the 
offences of the race, and as Sin, though not a sinner, received 
the end of the law in the blood-atonement of the Cross, he 
drew all men to Himself. "Though a Son, yet learned He 
obedience in the things which He suffered, and thereby 
became the Author of salvation to all them that believe 
upon Him." It is to the Son of man, therefore, that all 
men turn with faith who seek for truth, redemption, holi- 
ness, and eternal life. Away from Christ all is contention 
and confusion — chaos; with Christ all is peace, love, the 
power of righteousness and the hope of glory. This is the 
eternal apotheosis of Personality. 

So when Christ hath proven Himself to be "the power 
of God and the wisdom of God " in a redeemed man — a sin- 
ner saved from his sins — the witness of that new life in 
Christ Jesus must have force with and bring conviction upon 
other sinful men. May the Spirit of God so use these' 
recorded experiences to bring all who read them to the peace 
of Salvation and the power of the Truth! 

Since God made of one blood all the races of men, it 
seems a foolish fiction to account a special excellency to 
what is known as "blue blood" in the social order. That 



REV. SAMUEL WHITE SMALL, A.M.,. D. D. II 

is a vagrant idea in this age. It has floated down to us from 
the days of the Moorish invasion of Spain and amalgamation 
with its people, but with changed signincaucy. Instead of 
standing for racial purity, it has come to represent a so-called 
heredity of moral graces and social aristocratisms. This 
alleged "blue blood," however, is -no index »f character; 
it is scarcely more than an expectation attached to environ- 
ment. Men who were accredited with tk blue blood" have 
supplied a large percentage of the records of immoralities, 
crimes, and ignominies in every generation. They have 
pulled oars in galleys and pulled hemp on gallows around 
the globe. Almost every good name of America, however 
synonymous of virtue, patriotism, and moral grandeur, has 
been besmirched by some of its unworthy scions. Hered- 
ity as a doctrine of mental and physiological philosophy is 
undoubtedly well supported. It is too often used, however, 
on but one side of the problem of human life. Evil idiosyn- 
crasies and deeds are explained by it far more frequently 
than good impulses and actions. This is a wrong if the 
doctrine of heredity be all that is claimed for it. Adam 
and Eve brought forth two sons, Cain and Abel; one was 
wicked and the other righteous. The bad son slew the good 
son, but he did not put an end to the reproduction of right- 
eousness by the force of heredity. Seth came, even as Eve 
declared : " For God hath appointed me another seed instead 
of Abel, whom Cain slew." My thought is that the strain 
of Seth in the human family is as likely to turn toward right- 
eousness as the strain of Cain to turn toward evil. As for 
myself, heredity may have had some influence upon my 
notions. How much I do not seek to determine, nor in 
which direction. The data I have in memory is general 
and insufficient for such a discussion. At any rate, I charge 
nothing of my evil-doing upon my ancestry — not even upon 
Father Adam. 



I 2 A UTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

While no stickler for the "blue blood " notion, I may 
claim, without offence, to have sprung of good stock. My 
father's line ran back certainly to a stronghold in the High- 
lands of Scotland. He was a strong, nervy, and indomitable 
representative of clansmen to whom loyalty was a religion 
and love of their rights a living consecration. Traced back 
over the vicissitudes of centuries, the line of excellent man- 
hood and virtuous womanhood was broken by no fall toward 
crime or debauchery. My father himself was of singularly 
pure and abstemious habits from his youth. He was a man 
of affairs, but as a soldier of the Mexican War, a public 
printer, editor, and afterward managing official of a vast 
corporation, he abstained wholly from liquors, wines, beers, 
tobacco, coffee, and tea. Certainly not from him, as far back 
as I can trace, could I have inherited an appetite for any 
one of those things. My mother came by a direct line from 
the ancient Pontefracts, afterward the Pomfrets, of English 
history. The other side of her house was century old in the 
unadulterated faith of Scotch-Irish Presbyterianism. No 
Nazarite of old or ' c cranky ' ' Prohibitionist of to-day ever 
held strong drink in holier horror than did the men and 
women of her family. So I can discover no hereditary 
blight descending to me along that branch of my family 
tree. Whatever else I may have inherited, I do not believe 
I thus came by any fleshly appetite from the intemperance 
of which I have been a sufferer. 

My birthplace was in the now beautiful and, thrifty city 
of Knoxville, in East Tennessee, on the banks of the sin- 
uous and picturesque Holston River. When I was born 
(July 3, 1 851) my father was the editor of a newspaper of con- 
siderable note and influence. He took great interest in the 
development of my youthful faculties, and I early gave evi- 
dence of precocious powers. I learned my alphabet before 
other children usually have their attention centred upon it^ 



REV. SAMUEL WHITE SMALL, A.M., D. D. I 3 

and learned it mostly from the headings of the newspapers 
which my father brought home in the evenings from his 
editorial rooms. I learned to read his handwriting, as he 
prepared ' ' copy ' ' for the printers, and learned to read it 
14 upside-down" before I could read it when held in the usual 
and proper position. I was an eager and observant lad, and 
picked up a wonderful store of information early, which 
made me somewhat a popular prodigy. I mention these 
things, not for their novelty, but because they explain how, 
at that early date, I became eager for reputation and valued 
my powers and labors by the measure of popularity and 
applause they won for me. Thus early was implanted that 
love of praise which in after years proved so false a mentor 
to my fitter powers and stronger ambitions. 

My mother was a woman with intense religious principles. 
She had been reared in the most orthodox discipline of Pres- 
byterianism, and retained always the impress of its doctrines. 
When converted, however, she had united with the Method- 
ist Church, and therefore joined to her faith the practice of 
the daily duties which experimental religion dictates and 
which so tangibly "make for righteousness.* 

She was always deeply concerned for my spiritual devel- 
opment, and early began my indoctrination in the know- 
ledge of the word of God and in the duties of the Christian 
faith. My earliest recollections of her teachings are asso- 
ciated with the Bible and the " Shorter Catechism." My 
grandfather, a grand old Presbyterian saint, had taken me 
largely unto himself, and had me go with him to the Sab- 
bath-school of his church. In this way my Sabbath-school 
training for many years was after the fashion of the Presby- 
terians. In that day we had none of the modern helps, no 

International Lessons, ' ' or learned expositions of the histo- 
rical, ethical, and theological values involved in the lessons. 
The Bible and the Catechisms, Long and Short, were the 



14 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

text-books, and the teaching from them was simple, pure y 
and unquestioned in authority. I have had much reason 
since my conversion to praise God for the excellency of 
those early teachings. 

In schooling I was given the best of teachers, and early 
displayed an eagerness and aptitude for the acquirements 
of the school-room. I was ambitious to excel, and seldom 
failed to reach the rank and honors I coveted. A favor- 
ite with my teachers and popular with my schoolmates, 
my advancements were always rapid and stimulating to 
greater zeal. 

Because of these things my early youth is remembered as 
a season of pleasure and profit, filled with good promises for 
the future and often commended in my presence as the fore- 
runner of a brilliant and honorable career. And thus, in 
some degree, I was led to regard myself as "an elect child ' ' 
whose lines were predestined to every success and to a future 
fruitful of honors, fame, and fortune. 

I remember- my college-days with pleasure. They were 
days of enjoyment in many respects, and of incidents and 
experiences that might have been better in motive and more 
pleasant in recollection. My Alma Mater was that historic 
and excellent old Methodist institution in South-west Vir- 
ginia, Emory and Henry College. It combined in its title, as 
it did in its training, both the piety which is breathed in the 
name of Bishop Emory and the patriotism which is insepar- 
able from the name of Patrick Henry There I had sur- 
roundings favorable to the fullest cultivation of my mind 
in knowledge of the literature of the world, the arts, the 
sciences of civilization, together with opportunities in plenty 
and examples most noble to help me learn lessons of goodli- 
ness and experience the power of a life consecrated to the 
faith and service of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a place 
that had been especially selected on account of its remote- 



REV. SAMUEL WHITE SMALL, A.M., D. D. I $ 

ness from any town to which the students might resort for the 
purpose of finding means and places of dissipation. It was 
so advertised to the world as possessing these advantages of 
isolation from temptation and advantages for moral discipline 
as to induce many parents to send thither such of their sons 
as they feared might be falling into habits of an immoral cha- 
racter. Thus were gathered together in the college many 
young men who fouud frequent pleasure in exercising their 
fertile ingenuity to avoid the rigid college rules and indulge 
themselves in periodical dissipation. 

Unfortunately for me, I found many of these to be conge- 
nial spirits, and joined them in their exploits, and thus on 
frequent occasions laid myself open to fair charges of insub- 
ordination and moral laxness. More than once my escapades 
came near sending me away in disgrace, but the kindness 
of the good men in charge was greater than I deserved, and 
they let me remain. Once only was I moved to seek a bet- 
ter way. During a meeting among the students I sought 
conversion, and was led to believe I had experienced it ; but 
my struggle against the old life was brief. The power I 
exerted appeared purely mechanical instead of spiritual, 
and soon I fell away again, and became almost hopelessly 
disgusted with what I deemed to be my futile efforts against 
the bent which I had given to my life. 

I graduated with some promise and went away to nrf 
home, which was in the city of New Orleans at the time. 
To recuperate my health, which was somewhat broken, I 
took a position as an express messenger on the short and 
pleasant route between New Orleans and Mobile. The run 
between these cities was accomplished in six hours, occupy- 
ing the middle portion of the day, and leaving me open 
every night, in one or the other city, to find my pleasure 
as I chose. I soon fell into visiting places and engaging 
in dissipations that were anything but pleasing to my parents 



1 6 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

or helpful to my reputation and prospects for the future. I 
found in both cities young men of social position, means, and 
evil knowledge who received me gladly into their compa- 
nies and generously inducted me into all of the arts and 
devices of dissipation. I soon learned the lesson of the 
power of evil association, and had wit enough to appre- 
ciate that much further pursuit of these reckless proceedings 
would fix these vicious and degrading habits upon me for 
the indeterminate period of my future. 

Leaving this employment after a while, I went away to 
Nashville, Tennessee, and prosecuted my studies for admis- 
sion to the profession of the law. I was admitted by the 
Supreme Court of the State, and practised the profession 
with considerable prospects of distinguished success. 

While I was thus engaged I had ample opportunity in 
the gay and fashionable society of that city to acquire a 
fuller taste for the pleasures of the world and for the ways 
of those who look little to the moral quality of their enjoy- 
ments and habits. The appetite for liquors grew upon me, 
until I became aware of my danger by the inexorable penal- 
ties which ever and anon my dissipations would exact from 
me in pains, sickness, and humiliations. I resolved to mend 
my life and seek some more constant employment than the 
law then immediately promised me. I was offered and 
accepted a position upon the reportorial staff of the Nash- 
ville Banner, a noted afternoon journal of the Tennessee 
capital. It was then under the editorship of Hon. Albert 
Roberts, one of the ablest and most cultured men I have 
ever known in connection with daily journalism. He was 
exceedingly kind and helpful to me, and had I been as ambi- 
tious then to advance in the journalistic profession as he was 
willing to encourage me, the entire lines of my life might 
then have been happily changed into a sober and useful 
current. But the associations which reportorial work made 



REV. SAMUEL WHITE SMALL, A.M., D.D. I 7 

for me, the indulgences of my besetting appetite to which 
men invited me in order to secure for themselves the favors 
I might be able to do for them through the columns of the 
press, the places of news deposit into which I had the entree, 
such as police circles, the resorts of gamblers, of horsemen, 
and lewd assemblies — the slums in general of a city — were 
all of them such as offered reasons for the time being and 
opportunities abundant for drinking and the exploiting of 
other social vices. At last I became aware that I could not 
advance myself rapidly in the ranks of journalism in the 
city, because of these habits, which had grown upon me 
and beyond my ability to completely control. I made a 
determined effort to break away from them and renew my 
endeavors under more favorable circumstances. I withdrew 
from that environment and took myself off into the quiet 
village of Greenville, Tennessee. There I obtained the aid 
and friendship of ex-President Andrew Johnson, of whom 
my father had in times past been a personal friend and polit- 
ical supporter. He took me kindly under his patronage, and 
assisted me to establish myself in the newspaper business in 
his own home-town; and for nearly two years I had a most 
excellent opportunity to make a name and place for myself 
in my chosen field of enterprise. I enjoyed exceptional 
advantages for political information of the most interesting 
period of our history — that which preceded, included, and 
followed the great Civil War — getting the data directly from 
the lips, correspondence, and papers of this great and much- 
misunderstood patriot and statesman. He was very consid- 
erate toward me, permitted me to question him with free- 
dom, aud seemed pleased to make me a repository of many 
interesting facts concerning that great and thrilling period 
of national history in the making of which he had been a 
conspicuous and potent factor. 

While living in Greenville, on the 2 2d of February, 1873, 



1 8 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

I was married to Miss Annie Isabelle Arnold, daughter of 
General Thomas D. Arnold, a noted member of the bar and 
ex-Congressman. I found in her a cultured, Christian, and 
courageous helpmeet. In all the years of my trials, moral 
aberrations, and vicissitudes of fortune she has proven her 
supreme loyalty and the incalculable value of her native 
instincts and woman's wisdom. I feel that I can never 
repay her in sufficient measure for the persistence with which 
she sought my redemption and the strong support she affords 
me in the new life. 

The cholera epidemic of 1873 brought me financial disas- 
ter, and in the fall of that year I removed to Texas, where 
my father was president of the Texas Express Company. 
Locating in Houston, I became the city editor of the Hous- 
ton Mercury, then the leading journal of the city. Here I 
achieved a considerable and more than local reputation for 
the quality of my work on the press. Much of it was of a 
humorous turn, and my pseudonym of ' ' Merk ' ' became 
familiar throughout the State. I afterward passed to the staff 
of the Daily Telegraph, and thence to a brief ownership of 
the Daily Age. But journalism was a very precarious pur- 
suit in those changing times of Texas, and I soon tired of the 
weekly plaints of the printers and the semi-frequent descents 
of the sheriff. Suddenly, one day in the spring of 1875, I 
closed out my interest in Texas and returned to Georgia. 

Obtaining employment on the Atlanta Constitution at 
starvation figures, I set myself diligently to make a new 
start for newspaper fame. I worked steadily and with more 
than ordinary results. I soon acquired credit for excellent 
journalistic abilities, and also for my humorous work. It 
was here that I created "Old Si," the quaint negro com- 
mentator whose supposed discourses upon current topics 
obtained an immediate and widespread vogue in the news- 
papers of America and England. I remember my first 




Mrs. Annie I. Small. 



REV. SAMUEL WHITE SMALL, A.M., D. D. 1 9 

distinct sensation of having ' ' arrived somewhere ' ' in the 
pursuit of reputation was when my portrait appeared in the 
New York Graphic in 1876, in company with about a dozen 
more of the then popular press wits, such as u M. Quad, ' ' 
Bailey of the Danbury News, Bob Burdette, and u P. J. 
Man" Goldsmith of the New York Herald. It was this 
' ' Old Si ' ' matter that first gave the Constitution its ex- 
change value, and caused it to become a generally popular 
paper. 

In the mean while, in 1876, I was appointed official report- 
er of the Superior Courts of the Atlanta Circuit, and thus 
arrived at an income which softened somewhat the natural 
poverties of a press- writer. I held this important and profit- 
able position for ten consecutive years, only resigning after 
my conversion in the fall of 1885, and when I had deter- 
mined to enter upon a ministerial life. This position was 
of exceeding profit to me in more ways than in money. It 
gave me an almost daily familiarity with the law, the pro- 
cedure of courts, the character and courses of litigation, 
the curiosities of criminal histories, and the general phil- 
osophy of the jurisprudence side of popular government. 
The knowledge of these things is now of inestimable value 
to me. 

At the same time that I occupied this position in the 
courts, and was also a constant attache of the press in 
Atlanta, I also, by the courtesy and help of friends, had 
other privileges and advantages. 

In 1876, I was appointed by Governor Smith to represent 
the State of Georgia in the Southern Immigration Conven- 
tion at New Orleans and in the Mississippi Valley Commer- 
cial Convention at Memphis. 

In 1877, I was the reporter of the proceedings and debates 
of the Georgia Constitutional Convention, one of the ablest 
bodies ever convened in the State, and from which issued 



20 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

the present admirable constitution of the Commonwealth. 
In doing the work of this convention for the Constitution 
I worked an average of twenty-four hours per day for fifty 
days, reporting in short-hand throughout every session, and 
transcribing the proceedings for daily reproduction in the 
paper. This terrible task gave me a physical poverty which 
largely increased my reliance upon stimulants to supply 
wasted strength. 

In 1878, I obtained, through the personal kindness of 
Secretary of State Evarts, an appointment as an attache of 
the United States Commission to the Universal Exposition 
at Paris in France. I had made a speech on u The New 
South" at the banquet tendered by the citizens of Atlanta 
to President Hayes and his party of Cabinet officers in their 
famous Southern tour in 1877. Both the President and 
Secretary Evarts considered it a significant speech, because 
it was, .in fact, about the first notable demand for a new 
departure by the younger men of the South from the stub- 
born Bourbonism of the war-time political survivors. It 
was due to this speech that I was given the long-coveted 
opportunity to go abroad and see other lands and peoples. 
I greatly enjoyed the privileges accorded me as an official, 
and improved them to the fullest possible profit for sight- 
seeing and useful acquaintanceship. It was not, however, 
a very good arrangement for me, viewed particularly from 
the moral standpoint. It opened to me so extensive a 
range of novel experiences in the gay life of the godless 
city that I could not resist the impulses of my adventurous 
and self-indulgent nature. Suffice it to say here, that I 
familiarized myself all too abundantly with the "mysteries 
of Paris," and when the time for my withdrawal from those 
scenes arrived, it was much of a providential deliverance in 
the eyes of my wife and friends. 

We returned home to the United States, and I resumed 



REV. SAMUEL WHITE SMALL, A.M., D.D. 21 

my official and professional duties in Atlanta, meanwhile 
putting myself upon severe restraints of habit. 

My father died in 1879 in Texas, and shortly after my 
mother and her family removed to Atlanta. Here she hoped 
to help influence me to a sober and useful career. I was too 
far victim by this time to my deformed appetites to be 
greatly influenced by her prayers and pleadings. 

In 1879, ^ n November, I was appointed by United States 
Senator Benjamin H. Hill of Georgia as stenographer of the 
sub-committee of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, 
investigating the facts in the famous Kellogg-Spofford Sena- 
torial controversy from Louisiana. For many months pre- 
vious I had refrained from drink, but when the committee 
visited New Orleans, I fell into company with many of my 
boyhood companions, now grown to manhood with all the 
so-called ■ ' manly vices. ' ' My resolution withered in the 
warm atmosphere of the Crescent City clubs and saloons, 
and soon I was again going the evil and downward way. 

Transferred to the National Capital, the habits attendant 
upon my intemperance grew no better, because I became 
active among the politicians as a correspondent and "hale 
fellow," and was a genial, joking favorite with them. Two 
years of this sort of life brought me both many evil experi- 
ences and good friendships for the future. While connected 
with the Senate staff I was also engaged under Senator 
Voorhees on the Negro Bxodus Committee. 

In 1 88 1, I resumed journalism again in Atlanta, and con- 
tinued in court and newspaper work until 1885. I grew 
more and more a victim of my wrongly-cultivated habits. 
Among the peculiar incidents of those times were strange 
lapses of consciousness to which I became subject. I would go 
about, seemingly in my usual health and senses, talk famil- 
iarly with my family and friends with apparent perfect coher- 
ency, but would afterward " come to myself" to find that all 



2 2 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

the time I had been in a condition of absolute oblivion to my 
own movements and surroundings. These were very curious 
experiences, but I have since found from medical authorities 
that these lapses are characteristic of many drinking men, 
and present in medical jurisprudence a most important 
problem for legislators and judicial administrators to solve. 

It was during this period of my life that I tried medical 
help for the cure of my vicious appetite, but with no per- 
manent results. I also resorted to the so-called antidotes for 
the habit, but they proved equally deceptive. Every arti- 
ficial restraint and species of substitute, exploited in its 
turn, was abandoned because of its inherent impotency as a 
remedy; so that, by the sad logic of these repeated failures, 
I came at last to feel a sort of dull, acheless despair, forbid- 
ding me to hope that I might ever return to a better life and 
fortunes. Little wonder that I became heedless of my fate 
and put my life into all the jeopardies of bar-room associa- 
tions and the haphazard, dangerous conflicts between myself 
and drunken companions or strangers. I will carry with 
me to the grave, but I pray not to the resurrection, the 
( ' marks of the beast ' ' in many disfiguring scars. 

One of my experiences deserves here a circumstantial 
recital. It is known that in many States of the Union there 
have been enacted laws for the protection of the relatives of 
' ' habitual drunkards ' ' dependent upon these latter for sup- 
port. For instance, in Georgia it is provided that a wife 
may serve a legal notice upon liquor-sellers not to furnish 
liquors to her husband. Penalties are denounced against 
the violators of such a notice. But all such laws are prac- 
tically farcical in their promises. There have seldom been 
any good results reported from appeal to their aid. My own 
wife put away her scruples of pride and resorted to the help 
of this law. But the liquor-dealers laughed it to contempt 
and continued to supply me with liquors, either openly or 



REV. SAMUEL WHITE SMALL, A.M., D.D. 23 

secretly as occasion demanded, utterly regardless of all laws. 
And so it is in all other States. Such a law is a mockery to 
the hopes of the people who are its pretended beneficiaries, 
unless it is accompanied with the penalty of a peremptory 
forfeiture of license for its violation. 

It was on Sunday, September 13, 1885, that I attended, 
with my children, the great Tabernacle services of Rev. 
Sam Jones at Carters ville, Ga. We had four children in our 
home, the youngest being then a babe less than nine months 
old. The other three were Lolie, born May 14, 1874; Sam- 
uel W., Jr., born March 17, 1876; and Robert Toombs, born 
Oct. 9, 1877. Taking them out for a day's pleasure, I con- 
cluded by some singular chance to go to this religious as- 
sembly, then the sensation of the day. I heard Rev. Sam 
Jones that day for the first time, and the man and his won- 
derful discourse made a very profound impression upon me. 
I had been engaged all the previous week in arduous court 
work in the trial of criminal cases. Mr. Jones's sermon 
happened to run, in its argument, along judicial analogies, 
contrasting the processes of human and divine justice. Such 
a discourse was providentially fitted to engage my attention, 
and I heard him with more of real interest than I had 
accorded to any other preacher for many years. The con- 
sequence was a surprise to myself. I awoke from my ab- 
sorption in the discourse to find myself powerfully convicted 
of my sinful estate. This maddened me and sent me away 
from the scene to find relief in the company of my drinking 
and dissipated companions. But the arrows of the Holy 
Spirit hung fast. As I have told in my story elsewhere in 
this work, I found no rest until I yielded myself to Christ 
in an u unconditional surrender. ' ' 

The "Sermon on the Street," which has since become 
famous in my life-history, was preached to a miscellaneous 
multitude on a public square in Atlanta the same evening 



24 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

of my conversion — abont four hours after I felt my sins for- 
given. The following is the full account of the event that 
appeared in the columns of the Atlanta Constitution on the 
morning of Wednesday, Sept. 16, 1885: 

SAM SMALL'S SERMON. 



PREACHED TO AN ATLANTA CROWD LAST 
NIGHT. 



A Remarkable Sermon and its Decided Effect— Mr. Small Announces 

that Henceforward He will Preach Christ and Him Crucified— 

His Remarkable Conviction of Sin. 



YESTERDAY afternoon, about six o'clock, half a dozen 
small boys scattered through the streets a circular an- 
nouncing that Mr. Sam W. Small 

WOULD PREACH 

at the junction of Marietta and Peachtree streets at half- 
past seven o'clock, and inviting everybody to be present. 

This circular created no little surprise, and at half-past 
seven above five hundred people had gathered at the arte- 
sian well to hear Mr. Small. 

Had the announcement been made at an earlier hour 
there would have been a great crowd. A few minutes after 
the appointed time Mr. Small appeared above the heads of 
the crowd on a temporary platform. By his side stood his 
little daughter and his two little sons. 

Laying aside his hat, Mr. Small in a clear ringing voice 
began his remarks. He said in substance : My friends, I 
have invited you here in a novel manner, and have requested 
you to come to hear what I have to say. I have no expla- 
nation to offer you nor to any living man for the course I 



REV. SAMUEL WHITE SMALL, A.M., D.D. 25 

have seen fit to adopt. I have settled that question before 
the only tribunal which is competent to determine it. 

I have thought over my whole life, with a great deal in 
it to deplore and little to be satisfied with, and covered all 
over with the leprosy of sin as I was — until a few hours ago 
with the leprosy of sin — I have resolved to stand here before 
you to-night and in this public manner bear testimony to 
the mercy of God in leading me out of the wicked life which 
I have pursued so long. I have been pretty notorious in my 
sinful life in Atlanta, and I am not ashamed to be at least 
as public in my devotion to the cause of Christ. my 
friends, I wish I could take each one of 

YOU BY THE HAND 

and tell you how, within the past six hours, the scales have 
fallen from my eyes, and I have seen myself as I really am — 
how, by God's grace strengthening me, I have been enabled 
to turn my back on that miserable old life and to determine 
to serve my God with at least as much energy as I have hith- 
erto served the devil. I would be the most miserable ingrate 
if I did not bear open and public testimony to the goodness 
of a friend who bequeathed me a thousand dollars, or to the 
kindness of one who came to me and said : u Sam, here are 
500 dollars to help you out, old fellow." How can I fail 
to thank before all men the God who has filled my heart with 
peace, and has given me a comfort which I would not ex- 
change this night for the city of Atlanta or for all of the 
taxable property 

IN THE STATE OF GEORGIA? 

God's mercy gave me this blessing, though last night I 
rioted over these streets sodden with whiskey, firing at a 
target in the shooting-gallery, and disturbing the commu- 
nity generally. Why do men lead lives of sin and degra- 



26 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

dation ? There are three reasons which influence them most 
generally. One is slavery to their low appetites. Another 
is that they are too proud to live meek Christian lives. It 
is the pride of the devil which keeps them back, for fear that 
some one will reproach them for leaving old ways and former 
companions. I have seen the time when I would not have 
joined any church in Christendom for fear that some one of 
the boys would come up and say, " Sam, you've gone back 
on us!" But I'll tell you, my friends, though there should 
assail me a jeer from every bar-room I passed, and though 
ten thousand fingers of scorn should be pointed at me, I 
intend from this night forth to preach Christ and Him cru- 
cified so long as I shall live. The third reason why so many 
men remain sinful is because they think it don't pay to be 
righteous. When you had your grand religious meetings 
here a few months ago, I was reeling around the Big Bo- 
nanza, the Reading Room, and Phil Muller's seeking spirit- 
ual consolation of another kind. That comfort died quickly, 
and I was sick, sick in the pocket. I thank God that He has 
blessed me with His own precious grace and with a joy that 
the world 

CANNOT TAKE AWAY. 

I have in this public manner announced to you my pur- 
pose. I will on some more appropriate occasion speak more 
coherently and from some text in the word of God. Now, 
I ask that you will look with me to God in prayer for His 
blessing. 

Mr. Small spoke with great earnestness, and every word 
that he uttered was heard with the profoundest attention. 
When he lifted his hands and turned his eyes toward the 
stars and began to pray, his hearers instantly uncovered 
heads and bowed in reverent silence. After repeating the 
"Lord's Prayer," Mr. Small invoked the divine blessings 
on his efforts to preach to his fellow-men, and prayed that 



REV. SAMUEL WHITE SMALL, A.M., D.D. 2J 

liis feet might be held firm in the way that leads to life. At 
the conclusion of his prayer the crowd quietly dispersed. 

Of course everybody talked of the unexpected and remark- 
able event. The evident sincerity of the speaker and his 
impressive words deeply affected many of those who heard 
him. The sermon was 

THE TOWN TOPIC 

last night. Hundreds who were not present expressed their 
regret that they had not known that Mr. Small was to preach, 
and hoped that he would soon give an opportunity for the 
people of Atlanta generally to hear him. 

After the sermon Mr. Small said in conversation with some 
friends, "If any man had told me at noon to-day I would 
liave done what I did to-night, I would have considered him 
the biggest liar in the world. ' ' 

"When did you make up your mind to preach?" asked a 
gentleman present. 

1 ' At four o' clock this afternoon. The conviction that I 
ought to do so came over me irresistibly, and I am into this 
work with more determination than I ever had in my life 
before. ' ' 

' ' When will you preach in Atlanta again ?' ' 

' ' I hardly know. I will do so whenever I think I can do 
any good. ' ' 

"Are you going regularly into the ministry?" 

" As I said to-night, I shall devote my life henceforth to 
the cause of Christ. Whenever and wherever there is an 
opportunity for me to testify of the goodness of God before 
my fellow-men, I shall do so. It is my highest ambition 
now to tell what the mercy of God has done for me, and to 
induce others who are astray, as I was, to lead better lives. " 

Mr. Small talks quietly and earnestly, but with an empha- 
sis and earnestness which indicate his entire absorption in 



28 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

the work he has proposed for himself. There is a very gen- 
eral desire in Atlanta to hear him, and it is probable that he 
will preach at the opera-house next Sunday afternoon. 

September 15, 1885. 

The news of this ' ' strange freak, ' ' as many termed it, 
was telegraphed by ' ( specials ' ' and by ' ' Associated Press ' ' 
to the daily newspapers throughout the Union. I was well 
known to the craft, and the comments upon my action were 
about equally divided between such as were skeptical of the 
outcome and those that were jocular over the very idea that 
" Sam Small turns preacher !" 

As against these fears and flings, however, came scores of 
sympathetic telegrams and letters from my friends through- 
out the country, including leading statesmen, divines, and 
public celebrities in other walks of life. 

Rev. Sam Jones at once telegraphed me : 

' ' Come up here Saturday and preach for us in the Taber- 
nacle. God bless and keep you!" 

In the mean while, on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday 
evenings, I spoke to large congregations in Grace and Bllis 
street Methodist churches in Atlanta. I cannot pass these 
events by without recording my deep indebtedness to the 
fatherly kindness of the late Chief-Justice Jackson and the 
brotherly support of Hons. E. P. Chamberlin and J. C. Hen- 
drix, all of Atlanta, who stood by me and gave me counsel 
and confidence at this critical point in my new life. May God 
richly reward the two last named, both in the life here and 
that to come, as He surely did the great and good jurist and 
Christian whom I named first and who is now in glory! 

On the Saturday following I preached in the Tabernacle 
at Cartersville before the thousands who had seen me sitting 
there a reckless sinner the Sabbath previous. Sunday I 
again spoke there. Rev. Sam Jones invited me then to go 



REV. SAMUEL WHITE SMALL, A.M., D. D. 29 

with hiin in evangelistic work. His next engagement was 
for two weeks at St. Joseph, Mo., beginning the following 
Sunday. I accepted his offer at once, and, leaving my official 
business at court in the care of a substitute, I became Mr. 
Jones's companion. The association thus formed continued 
for over three years, and was accentuated by the great pop- 
ular revivals throughout America and Canada, and in which 
we were jointly engaged. The most notable of these were 
held in St. L,ouis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Baltimore, Toronto, 
Boston, Kansas City, and Indianapolis. Scores of lesser 
cities were also occupied for seasons ranging from one to three 
weeks each, and in the course of the three years we spoke 
upon religious themes to fully three millions of hearers. 

I can never explain or express to the world the value to 
me in my Christian experiences of those three years of asso- 
ciation with Bro. Sam Jones. What Ananias was to Paul 
and Paul to Timothy, so was Bro. Jones to me. It seemed 
as if God strangely warmed his heart toward me from the 
first, and confirmed his faith when he determined to take me 
into his companionship, Although his family and most sin- 
cere friends warned him against the risk of taking me, so 
lately converted, into such prominent collaboration in gos- 
pel service, yet he persisted, and I praise God with all my 
soul for raising up to me in that hour so stout a heart and 
so strong a soul to lean upon in my weakness. And I pray 
God that my life and services may to the end justify the 
confidence and brotherly love that Bro. Jones thus marvel- 
lously exhibited toward me. His interests are of instant 
and profound concern to me always, and my prayers are 
with him and for him continually. 

In the winter of 1888-89 our labors became of so diverse a 
character that our separation soon followed. He continued, 
as he does yet (1891), his great and wonderfully successful 
evangelistic work. I yielded to the demands, made upon me 



30 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

from so many quarters, to give to the temperance and Prohi- 
bition causes a considerable measure of my time and powers. 
My political knowledge seemed to fit me specially for deal- 
ing with the questions involved in the demands for the legal 
suppression of the liquor traffic. I was a member of the Na- 
tional Prohibition Convention of 1888 ; am one of the mem- 
bers of the National Execute Committee of the National 
Prohibition Party ; was the party candidate for State Senator 
from the Atlanta district in 1888, and was defeated only by 
a meagre and fraudulent plurality after a heated campaign. 

In 1887, I was the Commissioner of Education under the 
General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, for the aid of the schools of the colored Methodist 
Episcopal Church. I resigned the office, after a successful 
year, because its duties interfered with my evangelistic work. 

In 1887-88, I published The Southern Evangelist, but sold 
it at the end of the year. 

In the month of May, 1890, I visited Ogden, Utah, at the 
request of Rev. J. Wesley Hill, pastor of the First Method- 
ist Church of that city, to conduct revival services. After 
a week of these services I was approached with the tender 
of the presidency of the newly-projected Utah University 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, located at Ogden. After 
serious consideration and much prayer I accepted that oner- 
ous and critical function. Since then I have been diligently 
and anxiously planning to bring into life and efficiency in 
the great Mormon Territory such an institution of learning 
as shall be worthy the name of university, and which will 
honor Christ, augment His earthly kingdom, and be a con- 
tinuous and growing glory to our Methodism. 

As for the residue of my life and labors, I commit them 
to the God who has exhibited His love to me so wonderfully, 
and His Christ who has redeemed me so fully, so sweetly, so 
triumphantly! 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 



THE WHITE ANGEL OF NATIONAL SOBRIETY. 

PAGE. 

The uplifting forces of civilization. — The voices of past history. — Necessity 
gives birth to Reform. — The needs of the race gendered the temperance 
movement. — The word " Temperance " inadequate. — The good and the 
limitations of total abstinence. — Legal restraint and ultimate prohibi- 
tion. — The rubbish to be removed. — Worse evils possible. — The degrada- 
tion of the Sabbath. — The saloon in politics. — The worst foe of the work- 
ing man. — History and the home as teachers. — Signs of the victory of the 
White Angel of Sobriety 39 

CHAPTER II. 

A BACKWARD REVIEW OF THE BRUTALIZING EVIL. 



Evil of intemperance. — The discovery of alcohol. — Intoxication in ancient 
China. — A drunken emperor. — Religious reformers. — Modern intemper- 
ance. — Drinking in India. — Extracts from the Vedas. — Laws of Manu. — 
The English in India. — A festival of drunkenness. — The Zend-Avesta on 
drunkenness. — Jem-Sheed and the grape-juice. — A Persian council. — 
Stories from Herodotus. — The feast of Belshazzar. — Wine in modern 
Persia. — Abstinence of the Egyptian priests. — The tale of the monu- 
ments. — Pharaoh's cup 



59^ 



CHAPTER III. 



THE PLAGUE IN PALESTINE, GREECE, AND ROME. 

The wines of Palestine. — Noah's mishap. — The Proverbs on wine. — Christ's 
miracle. — The Nazarites and Rechabites. — Other abstinent sects. — Wine- 
drinking in Greece. — Death of Anacreon. — Bacchanalian orgies. — Greek 
legend of the vine. — Excesses of Alexander the Great. — Drunkenness in 
Rome. — Pliny's description. — Habits of the Romans. — Drinking of Roman 
ladies. — Total abstinence in the past. — Story of Cyrus. — Abstinence in 

Greece. — Wine forbidden by the Koran 80 

31 



32 CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 
BEER-BESETTING TEUTONS AND BRITONS. 

PAGE 

The Teutonic the intemperate race. — Gambrinus. — Monks of St. Gall — Drink- 
ing tournaments. — German drinking code. — Stories of German drinkers. 
— Edicts of monarchs. — Luther, Emperor Wilhelm and Bismarck on beer. 
Temperance societies. — Anglo-Saxon drinkers. — Danish beer-heroes. — 
Swedish ale-bibbers. — The Russian excise. — Peasants forced 10 drink. 
— Intemperance in early England. — Custom of pledging. — Habits of 
clergy. — Wickliffe's testimony. — Tavern gossips. — The art of distillation 
discovered. — Spirits in Hungary ; in Ireland. — Punishments for drunken- 
ness. — Customs of Scotch and Irish gentry. — Robert Burns. — Gin-drinking 
and its effects. — Restrictive measures. — Drinking in high life. — Examples 
of abstinence among notable men loo 

CHAPTER V. 

THE ADVENT OF RUM IN AMERICA. 

The rum-bottle brought to America. — Henry Hudson and the chiefs. — The 
Puritans and their laws. — New Hampshire liquor-trade. — Drunkenness in 
Canada. — Distillation of rum from molasses. — Growth of New England 
rum trade. — Causes of increase of intemperance. — General dissipation. — 
The habits of the people. — After the Revolution. — The farm in 1814. — 
Drinking in 1 825. — The Whiskey War. — Testimonies as to drinking 
habits. — Professor Stowe's story. — Professor Olmstead's anecdotes. — 
Drinking in the South. — Story of William Wirt 121 

CHAPTER VI. 

PIONEERING THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 

Intemperance a vice of barbarians. — Review. — Mildness of early intoxicants. — 
As to the Bible. — Rice wine. — The use of alcohol. — Gin- drinking, — De- 
velopment of intemperance in America. — The voice of reform. — Ancient 
prohibition. — Temperance societies of the past. — Dr. Rush's essay: his 
sentiments. — Thermometer of intemperance. — Church declarations. — First 
temperance societies in America. — Moreau society. — Mr. Armstrong and 
the jug. — Dr. Clark's narrative. — The first pledge. — Other societies and 
their work. — Temperance in the churches. — The Presbyterians. — The 
Methodists. — The Friends. — The Congregationalists. — Major Cotton's story 142 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE AGITATION FOR TOTAL ABSTINENCE. 

Dr. Beecher's temperance work. — How he came to preach the "Six Sermons." 
— Quotation from Beecher. — General opinion of the necessity of liquor. — 
Total abstinence from ardent spirits. — The American Temperance Society. 
— Its pledge. — Dr. Hewitt's work. — Remarkable progress of temperance. 



CONTENTS. 33 

PAGE 

— The first newspaper. — State societies. — Congressional Temperance So- 
ciety. — Church-work. — Teetotalism. — Dickey Turner's pledge. — Total ab- 
stinence societies. — Gerritt Smith's confession. — Ten years of temperance. 
— National conventions. — Progress of the teetotal pledge. — Congress and 
the Indians. — Little Turtle's story. — John Trumbull and Zachaiy the 
Indian. — The temperance dinner to Henry Clay. — Theodore Cuyler's 
stories of temperance pioneers. — Father Hunt and the eggs. — Deacon 
Giles's distillery 162 

CHAPTER VIII. 

NATIONAL EFFORTS AND EVANGELISTS. 

The Baltimore tippling club. — Its determination to reform. — The Washington 
society formed. — Effect of its lectures. — Decrease in liquor consumption. 
— John Hawkins's story. — His reform. — Signs the pledge. — His work as 
a lecturer. — Latham's pledge. — Hawkins in Savannah. — The yellow-com- 
plexioned man. — Youth of John B. Gough. — His dissipation. — He signs 
the pledge. — His terrible suffering. — Gough as a lecturer. — His manner. 
— Tour in England. — The rapids of rum. — The story of " Fire "... 189 

CHAPTER IX. 

FAMOUS ORATORS OF THE FIRST CRUSADES. 

Father Mathew's early work. — He signs the pledge. — His labors in Cork. — 
Credited with healing powers. — Tour through Ireland. — Wonderful effect. 
— Visits Scotland and England. — Cuyler's account of his work in Glasgow. 
— Father Mathew and the bailiff. — Visits America. — His death. — Thomas 
F. Marshall. — Signs the pledge. — An eloquent temperance speech. — The 
mother's gratitude. — Marshall's relapse and final fate. — George Briggs and 
the Congressman. — The Congressman's story. — A happy wife. — Charles 

Jewett as a lecturer. — Jewett and Ben Johnson. — Squire H and 

Captain A . — Father Taylor's repartee. — The Bunker Hill illustration. 

— George Haydock's reformation. — The man with the jugs 217 

CHAPTER X. 

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORDERS. 

Order of Rechabites. — Sons of Temperance. — Their purposes and progress. — 
In Canada and Great Britain. — Their present standing. — Admission of 
women. — Order of Good Templars. — Its pledge and purpose. — Temper- 
ance among children. — Cold- Water Army. — Juvenile Sons of Temperance. 
— Band of Hope. — Templars of Honor and Temperance. — Progress of 
the order. — Good Samaritans. — The Dashaways. — Minor orders. — Royal 
Templars of Temperance. — Advantages of association. — Societies in 
Canada; in Great Britain. — Temperance work in English churches. — 
American societies in England. — Women's unions. — Societies in English 

post-office, army, navy, etc 244 

3 



34 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE EARLY LITERATURE OF TEMPERANCE. 

PAGE 

Importance of literary labor. — Early American pamphlets. — Dr. Rush's Essays. 
— Early nineteenth-century authors. — Putnam and the wolf. — Marsh's 
story. — Death on the Striped Pig. — Lament of the Albany brewers. — 
SewalPs drawings of the human stomach. — The pioneer temperance news- 
papers. — Early temperance literature of England. — Later works. — Cruik- 
shank's temperance pictures. — The National Temperance Society. — Its 
object and publications 263 

CHAPTER XII. 

ANTI-LIQUOR LABORS IN CHURCH AND SCHOOL. 

Church temperance societies. — In England and America. — The Presbyterian 
position. — The Methodist law. — The rule with the Baptists. — The Friends 
and the United Brethren. — Rev. John Pierpont and his church committee. 
— The work in Sabbath and public schools. — Mrs. Hunt and scientific 
temperance instruction. — Opposition to it by the liquor- dealers. — The rela- 
tion of churches to the reform. — How a preacher turned about. — The im- 
proved attitude of the churches in this country 276 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE REIGN AND RECORD OF LICENSE. 

License in past times. — Ale-wives. — Earliest license in England. — Restrictive 
edicts. — The 1830 beer bill and its effects. — Growth of intemperance. — 
Extracts from Cowper's Task. — Early license in America. — The drunkard's 
D. — License laws in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. — Drunkenness in 
Sweden. — Testimony of Baillie Lewis.— The Gothenburg system.— How 
it works. — Lewis's description. — Intoxication in Europe. — Effects of wine- 
drinking in France. — Statistics of spirit-drinking. — Terrible effects. — 
Drinking in Switzerland. — Adulteration of Swiss wine. — New license 
law. — Drinking in Italy. — Spirit-drinking in Germany 287 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE FIRST WAVE OF PROHIBITION. 

Prohibition in Canada. — Swedenborg on license. — The no-license movement. 
— The drunkard's liberty-pole. — A drunkard's argument for license. — 
State of affairs in Maine. — Neal Dow's efforts. — The passage of the Maine 
l aw , — Its immediate effects. — Methods of evading the law. — Story by G. 
W. Curtis. — The law repealed and re-enacted. — Prohibition in other 
States. — Workings of the Vermont law. — Methods of evasion in Maine. — 
Story of New York prohibition. — Tidal wave of prohibitive law .... 313 



CONTENTS. 35 

CHAPTER XV. 
THE FRUITS AND FUTURE OF PROHIBITION. 

PAGE 

Prohibition in Great Britain. — Saltaire. — Bessbrook. — Tyrone county, Ireland. 
— Canterbury, England. — The Low Moor region. — The villages of Tem- 
perance and Intemperance. — Failure of all efforts to restrict. — Why is the 
traffic not abolished ? — The lines of resistance. — Regulation a refuge. — 
The Prohibition forces have " come to stay." — When shall the victory be ? 336 

CHAPTER XVI. 

DURING AND AFTER THE WAR. 

Reversal in the temperance movement. — Liquor in the army. — The camp 
whiskey-trader. — Farragut and his men. — Temperance of Gen. Lee. — Lee 
and the buttermilk. — Whiskey and mathematics. — Col. Lahmanousky's 
experience. — Since the war. — The ill effects of emigration. — How to cure 
them. — The Catholic temperance movement. — Work of the Rev. P. Byrne. 
— Organization of the Catholic Total- Abstinence Union. — The Centennial 
Fountain. — Progress of the society. — The Sodality League. — Drunken 
boys of Chicago. — Formation of the Citizens' League. — The Law-and- 
Order League. — Its work in Chicago. — Admiral Farragut and his son. — 
The farmer and the sheep. — Sipping children. — The judge's morning 
dram. — Flinging away the decanter. — Joe's and Bill's sentiments .... 350 

CHAPTER XVII. 

WOMAN'S ENTRANCE UPON THE ARENA. 

Dr. Dio Lewis at Hillsboro'. — The women's march. — The surrender of the 
saloons. — Kneeling in the snow. — How the whiskey was burned. — Charley 
Beck's defeat. — Spread of the movement. — Klein and the crusaders. — 
The Cleveland mob. — The crusaders in Cincinnati. — The beer-seller's 
cannon. — How the women conquered the roughs. — Crusading in other 
States. — Decline of the enthusiasm. — What followed it. — Organization of 
the Women's Christian Temperance Union. — Mrs. Buell on crusade-work. 
— Publications of the Union. — Sabbath-school work. — Juvenile organiza- 
tions. — Young Ladies' Leagues. — Miss Willard's experience of their 
work. — The young man's tempter. — The betrothed's remorse. — Coffee- 
houses and Friendly Inns. — Joshua L. Bailey's good work. — The Cleve- 
land Friendly Inn.— Present condition of the Women's Christian Temper- 
ance Union. — The judge's answer to the critic. — The jail-keeper's opinion. 
— The saloon-keeper and the crusader 372 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

TEMPORARY REFORM MOVEMENTS. 

Church work in temperance. — Osgood's repentance. — He organizes a reform 
club. — Spread of the idea. — Dr. Reynolds tells his story. — How he was 



36 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

brought to sign the pledge.— His influence on the reform club movement. 
— Adopts the red-ribbon badge. — The pledge.— A backslider. — Reynolds 
in Michigan. — Francis Murphy's story of his childhood. — In the whiskey 

business in Maine. — In jail. — His reform. — Murphy as a lecturer. In 

Chicago.— In Pittsburg.— In Philadelphia.— The National Christian Tem- 
perance Union 397 

CHAPTER XIX. 

GOSPEL AND INDUSTRIAL TEMPERANCE. 

The influence of Christianity on temperance. — The Moody and Sankey meet- 
ings.— The Chicago convert.— Hawkins and Walker.— Walker's pledge. — 
Jerry McAuley's record. — His reform.— His mission.— Jerry's story of his 
work. — The effect of a bowl of soup. — Orville Gardiner's evil life. — What 
turned him. — His battle with the jug. — His work as a lecturer. — Dr. 
Jewett and the minister. — Canon Wilberforce on the blue ribbon. — The 
red, white, and blue ribbons. — Reformatory Homes. — Stories of inmates. 
— What mothers and wives say. — Before and after reform. — Good work 
of the inebriate asylums. — Industrial temperance. — Railroad temperance 
reform. — Mr. Howard and his drunken crew. — Effect of his resolution. — 
Mr. Powderley's remarks on intemperance. — The carpenter and the fools' 
pence. — The man and the bunch 417 



CHAPTER XX. 

ADVANCES OF TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 

Necessity of legal restraint. — Local-option localities. — Judge Williams on Pot- 
ter county prohibition. — Other localities. — Recent growth of the idea. — 
The Prohibition States. — High-license bills in the State. — Partial prohibi- 
tion. — Constitutional prohibition in Kansas. — The women and the cow- 
boys. — Effect of the law. — How the liquor-sellers were defeated. — The 
Iowa bill. — The women carry it through. — Killed by the Supreme Court 
decision. — Recent votes on constitutional prohibition. — Prohibitory amend- 
ment to the United States Constitution offered 443 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THE LIMITATIONS OF LOCAL OPTION. 

Local-option laws. — The negro opposition in the South. — Bills passed in the 
States. — The Virginia bell-punch law. — Legislation of 1881 and 1882. — 
The six Prohibition States. — Local option in Georgia. — Elsewhere. — In 
Atlanta. — Dr. Cuyler's experience. — The United States Supreme Court 
decisions. — Intemperance in politics. — The Prohibition candidates and 
votes. — The Beer-brewers' Congress. — Too full for utterance. — Other liq- 
uor associations. — Prohibition in Canada. — Lawson's permissive bill in 
England. — The status of temperance elsewhere 457 



CONTENTS. 37 

CHAPTER XXII. 

PROHIBITION WILL PROHIBIT. 

PAGE 

Character of the problem.— Influences affecting it.— The persistency of liquor- 
sellers. — The law in Maine. — Testimony of an anti-prohibitionist. — State- 
ments of others.— D. S. Miller's experience in Maine. — Whiskey in the 
cars . — Tricks of the trade. — The Fairbanks scale-works. — Col. Fairbanks' 
opinion. — Gov. Martin on the Kansas law. — What Senator Ingalls says. — 
Prohibition in Iowa. — " The Flying Dutchman." — The last prisoner. — 
Admissions of U. S. Brewers' Association. — Mr. Schade's remarks. — 
Smith and Jones. — Other vagaries of rum's victims 469 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE CONFLICT. 

The liquor trade organized for defence. — The lawlessness of its purposes. — 
Defiance of the authorities. — The foreign influence which controls the 
trade. — The English syndicates. — The balance of power the pivot of their 
protection. — Permitted by the politicians " for revenue only " ! — They cry, 
" It pays the pensions." — How the law is subject to liquor dictation. — 
Strange inconsistencies of the State statutes. — The increasing demonstra- 
tion that regulation does not regulate . . .• 489 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

A REVIEW OF ANTI-ARGUMENTS. 

" The un-Americanism of Prohibition" refuted. — How the courts view it. — 
What statesmen and publicists have affirmed. — Not a sumptuary law. — 
Not a violation of personal liberty. — Not a creator, but a developer, of 
hypocrisy. — The sneaking traffic. — Attitude of the politicians toward the 
liquor traffic. — The appeal of ihe drunkard-makers for " Christian treat- 
ment." — How they want their victims treated. — Some recent instances of 
the desperation of the trade. — The decrease of the saloon figures .... 499 



CHAPTER XXV. 

SIGNIFICANT COMPARISONS OF FACTS. 

The status of the liquor evil in the South and in the North. — The old idea 
about the Southern people. — The changes made by the war. — Effects in 
both sections. — A reversal of methods of life.— -How the saloons have 
been rooted out in the South. — " High license " according to the South- 
ern interpretation. — Statements from Southern and Western leaders. — 
Northern authorities quoted. — Will the fight of the future against the 
saloon be sectional ? — Some significant figures from government records . 5 ] 



3& CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
" THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER." 

PAGS 

Effects of intemperance on the family. — On society and the state. — Its criminal 
record. — Benefits of prohibition. — Revenue from liquor. — Rum compared 
with war. — The wife and the rum-seller. — Jack in church. — The milder 
alcoholics. — Wine-drinking in California. — Testimony on the evils of 
beer-drinking. — Col. Green on mortality from beer- drinking. — Adulteration 
of liquors. — The Irishman's warming draught. — The record of reform. — 
In the Church. — In the White House. — In Congress. — Congress before the 
war. — In the medical profession. — Moderate drinking. — Public opinion. — 
The laboring classes. — The great industries. — Modern temperance the 
work of the people. — Intemperance in other lands. — The Congo region. — 
Reckless supplying of savages with rum. — Legal repression of the traffic 
needed. — Influence of education and enlightenment. — Promise of the 
future 520 



PART II. 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

The story of the degradation and regeneration of a human life. — The remark- 
able experiences and conversion of the author, as related by himself 
before immense audiences throughout America 561 



/ 



THE WHITE ANGEL OF THE WORLD. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE WHITE ANGEL OF NATIONAL SOBRIETY. 

r I ^HE forces of Civilization are working the world upward. 
-*- The cries of the Pessimists are overborne by the u Hail, 
soldiers!" and the huzzas of the battles and victories which 
are widening the circles of peace, progress, and good- will to 
men. We are rapidly passing by the era when individuals dic- 
tated the destinies of the earth, and coming into the better 
times when peoples are the contestants for the honors and 
leaderships of the onward movements of generations. No 
longer do we sing that 

" Ten thousand go down like stones in a wall, 
That one may go on to reward and renown." 

Now, the incidents and accidents, the catastrophes and 
corpses, are the accepted corollaries of the tremendous ope- 
rations of popular progress, and the song recites that 

"The soldiers of Faith, however they fall 

In the maze of these mysteries as they move, 
Are martyrs who make for the life of all, 

And are crowned with the wide world's grateful love." 

All religion, all science, all art, all law, all wisdom of his- 
tory, and all noble present energies are centred upon the 
future of the human, race. Piety, patriotism, and progress 

39 



4-0 THE WHITE ANGEL 

are not so much concerned about trie " From whence?" as 
with the "Whereunto?" of the world and the peoples 
thereof. 

Truly, what has been is monitory of what may be again. 
Nature is repetitious, while Progress is a perpetual pioneer. 
We reverse the theodolite of prescience ever and often to 
take a long and helpful look backward over the line of pre- 
cedent. Direction is the indicative mood of the true Spirit 
of the Ages. " Onward and upward !" are her imperative 
commands — have been, indeed, from the day man turned 
mourning from the barred gates of Eden until he shall come 
again, redeemed and rejoicing, through the widespread 
gates of the Eternal City. For, with Browning, we believe 
"God's in His heaven, all's well with the world." 

The upward and Godward forces of humanity have been 
evolved from the necessities of the race — necessities revealed 
by the negative, downward forces which are constants in 
natural human history. If there never had happened in- 
stances of falsehood, there never would have been gendered 
an imperative demand for the exaltation of Truth. Had no 
man ever complained of injustice, there might never have 
been felt a necessity for an organized effort to establish 
a reign of Justice. In like manner, if the appetites and 
their pestilent broods of lusts and passions never had pushed 
their evil effects into both individual and universal expe- 
rience, there would have arisen no strenuous demand for 
their suppression and the enthronement in their stead of the 
principles of fleshly mortification, self-denial, and social 
reformation. 

Prevailing poverty is the mother of the popular voice 
calling aloud for a more equitable distribution of wealth, 
for "the communism of Christ," for "state socialism." 
The oppression of labor by capital is the recognized raison 
cfetre of the legion of wise and unwise labor agitations, 



OF THE WORLD. 4 1 

looking to the betterment of the condition of the toilers. 
A sense of unfair charges levied upon the products of agri- 
culture has been the gravamen of the discontent of the 
farmers of the land, and the explanation of their efforts to 
organize a system of legislative reprisals and restrictions 
upon the mercantile, financial, and transportation elements 
of the nation. We are making no comment upon the quality 
of those movements; we are linking back efforts to their 
motives. These statements are simply the truisms of tran- 
sient events. 

Then it should be plain enough to every fair and intelli- 
gent observer why the Temperance question has grown 
these many years in America with a constantly accelerating 
growth — why it has come at last to be the insistant, irritating, 
irrepressible problem of our own and the wide world's future. 
Need — the imperative need — of individuals and peoples to 
be saved from the useless, senseless, destructive curse of the 
system of strong drink, has determined the best brains and 
hearts of the world to labor in this magnificent field of refor- 
mation. Because millions of our fellow-beings are being 
seduced from sobriety and involved in the deepest poverties 
and despairs of the race, some scheme of redemption that 
can reach them is an unsmotherable demand of the age. 
Because the social life of civilization has not yet escaped 
many semi-barbaric survivals, kept alive by the drink evil, 
and can never become the great sanctum of all that is pure, 
cultured, and Christian in national life while this curse 
remains with it, the Christianity and sociology of the world 
are radically pledged to the divorcement of society from strong 
drink. Because the public concerns most intimately affect- 
ing national power and perpetuity are, in many lands, largely 
yet associated with the abnormal power and organized inter- 
ests of the liquor traffic, and because this alliance is prolific 
of public corruption, official prostitution, and concealed 



42 THE WHITE ANGEL 

parasitism upon the public functions, the wisest and most 
unselfish publicists and statesmen of the world are agreed 
that Purity of Government demands the Prohibition of the 
liquor Evil. 

The agitation for Temperance, therefore, is its own vindi- 
cation, since it is confessedly a needed crusade against an 
open and almost omnipresent evil. There is occasion just 
here, however, to refer to definitions and establish a vital 
distinction. 

Temperance has for centuries been the accepted word to 
represent both personal abstinence from strong drink and the 
public antagonism to the evils of it in general. The word 
really carries no more than its synonymic word — moderation. 
But moderation is a word that makes its own terms with the 
individual, and when harnessed to a public function it is 
strangely elusive and delusive. As a term to express the 
modern antagonism to the system of strong drink — and the 
phrase is used advisedly in face of the organized form of the 
evil as it now presents itself — the word Temperance has lost 
all force and individuality. In ancient Greece it was the 
acme of civic honor to be hailed " Demagogue." The pop- 
ular acclaim which recognized one as thus the unique ' ' leader 
of the people " was the sweetest distinction the patriot strove 
to enjoy. But in later times, in all enlightened lands, the 
most shameless candidate for public favors feels outraged 
if denounced as a u demagogue," so corrupted has this lofty 
title become as it has descended the generations. Likewise, 
•■* in the brave days of old " in Rome, he who was a u con- 
script " in the public service — one of the " Conscript Fa- 
thers " of that majestic Senate which shared sovereignty 
with the people — was prouder of his title than Caesar of his 
diadem. But in modern nomenclature the "conscript" is 
the cowardly wretch who is dragged from hiding to serve his 
country in her military ranks. The term is odious, and has 



OF THE WORLD. 43 

been known to prick a craven into a show of courage and 
honor. 

So the word Temperance, unless dignified by association 
with the word Christian, has come to be a hollow mockery 
of the virtue it once represented. It is repudiated by all 
real friends of that virtue as unworthy, by reason of mani- 
fold corrupt liaisons, to longer represent it in virtuous cir- 
cles. Why ? Because the enemies of the virtue have seized 
upon her cloak and are masquerading in the stolen livery. 
Temperance has fallen upon the misfortune of her elder sis- 
ter, Truth. 

The legend tells us that Truth one day, leaving her gar- 
ment behind her, descended naked into the well of mysteries 
to search for hidden verities. While thus engaged Falsehood 
<:ame by, and, quickly exchanging her own polluted rags for 
Truth's stainless raiment, made off in exultation. Truth, 
emerging from the well, finding her own garb gone and 
disdaining the cast-off clothes of Falsehood, descended 
again, and has been found since only ' ' at the bottom of 
the well," while Falsehood deceives the world full often 
by reason of her stolen robes that should betoken only 
Truth. 

To-day we pick up the morning newspaper and read the 
telegraphic report — for they are an important people and 
their doings are worth the expensive telegraph tolls — of the 
proceedings of the National Liquor-Dealers' Association in 
annual convention at St. Paul. We are not surprised to 
find in the report that these men have adopted a series of 
" temperance resolutions " that would be an honorable deliv- 
erance from a Methodist conference or a Presbyterian Synod! 
In yet another journal we read a like telegraphic summary 
of the deliberations of the National Brewers' Convention, 
and, as a matter of course, find them adopting resolutions 
laudatory of "temperance" and declaring themselves to be 



44 THE WHITE ANGEL 

"the only apostles of true temperance." These travesties 
upon both Truth and Temperance are becoming the annual 
farce and impudence of these* leagued purveyors of strong 
drinks. And men otherwise careful of public integrity, for 
the sake of a show of "liberalism" and a puerile protest 
against so-called ' ' fanaticism, ' ? laugh at these exhibitions of 
lying and duplicity. It is such conduct upon the part of 
the liquor-gentry and such tolerant optimism by the general 
public that have moved the crusaders against the liquor evil 
in all its phases to throw overboard the word "Temper- 
ance," and substitute other words and phrases more accu- 
rately defining the ends they aim to reach — viz. Total 
Abstinence for the individual and Prohibition of the 
Liquor Traffic. 

Total Abstinence has always been popular as the rule for 
individual conduct with every one who would avoid the taint 
and power of strong drink. It is a recommendation that 
requires no support from argument. It is the axiom of 
the ages, and applies to all other evils as well as that of 
drinking liquors. It is the commonplace translation of St. 
Paul's exhortation: " Awake to righteousness, and sin not!" 
But it has been made a specific process in the labors of Tem- 
perance reform, and has had variant measures of success. 
These experiences are more fully set forth and their values 
determined in the body of this work. It needs only to be 
remarked, in this place, that it is no longer the process 
looked to for the general recovery of the race from the evils 
of intemperance or for the abolition of the fateful traffic in 
intoxicants. 

As to the more drastic and coercive methods which centre 
upon the principle of Prohibition, there are many shades of 
opinion and many processes of trial. Within the past forty 
years in the United States there has been much exploitation 
of methods of legal restraint and prohibition of the liquor 



OF THE WORLD. 45 

traffic. The incidents and results of these will be more 
fully considered in appropriate chapters of this book. 

Yet before dealing with the data of those endeavors, it is 
proper to say that the signs of the times are prophetic of 
progress rather than of retrogression in the matter of en- 
couraging the total prohibition of the manufacture, importa- 
tion, and sale of strong drink. The progress will be neces- 
sarily slow, because of the financial and personal interests 
associated with the traffic, and because of the extravagant 
notions and immature methods of many sincere and zealous 
friends of the cause. 

It is unquestionably true that considerable measures of 
nonsense and fanaticism have been intermixed with the 
agitation for Prohibition which has been so persistently 
pushed forward by serious and courageous men and women. 
Many urgent reformations, as history attests, have been 
delayed and defeated by the unreasonable demands of the 
too-confident and enthusiastic followers of the standards 
raised by their leaders. The discipline of the l ' Tenth 
Legion ' ' is not always possible with the masses moving as 
protesters or stirred to establish a principle. 

In this matter of the suppression of the Juggernaut curse 
of humanity the Pharisaism and fanaticism of its devotees 
cannot be urged to impeach the integrity of the principle 
involved. There is a steady, persistent undertow of honest 
purpose which is surely drawing this ark of a new covenant 
among nations to its place of rest and permanency. There 
is coming a day of serious and well-tempered debate when 
the real terms of the complex proposition will be segregated 
from mere sentimentalism and idealistic enthusiasm, and 
when the wisest men of the world, nation for nation, will 
seek the day of decision and set up firmly the standard of 
Christian and constitutional righteousness. Mere juggling 
with ill-collected statistics; the wild parade of phenomenal 



46 THE WHITE ANGEL 

woes and crimes; the wresting of texts and the annunciation 
of euphemistic dogmas upon the subject, — will all be pushed 
aside. It will have become a prime question of social and 
political economics, to be settled without passion in the 
interests of manhood, civilization, and the future prosperity 
of the common citizenship. What Washington and his 
colleagues did for the people of the Colonies; what Lincoln 
and his supporters did for the slaves of the South and the 
people of the whole Union, — such will be the work some 
new and fearless patriot will do for the victims of the tyrant 
Drink and for the slaves of the oligarchy of Rum. 

That the Republic is hastening toward the era of this 
large and longed-for emancipation is evidenced by the pre- 
paratory evolution now in operation. The growth of an- 
tagonism to the liquor traffic is one of the marvels of these 
closing years of the Nineteenth Century. It is by no means 
to be measured by definitive organizations pledged to the 
extinction of the pernicious system. Indeed, the better and 
greater part of the genuine prohibitive sentiment of the 
country is not yet attached to these organizations. They 
are truly the aggressive elements in the present prospect of 
the field of contention, and they are serving an essential 
function in the development of the plan of campaign which 
is formative as yet. But the real forces are not yet mustered 
and aligned for the decisive Armageddon. They are gath- 
ering conviction, knowledge, and the earnestness of indig- 
nation, while they are yet held in leash by the considerations 
of creed, party, and passive public opinion. But the day 
of crystallization cannot be avoided. Affinity of sentiment 
and identity of purpose will draw these scattered elements 
into one vast array of harmonious virtue, valor, and vigor. 
It will accomplish its tremendous victory with irresistible 
energy and a shout that ceases not between signal-gun and 
salute. 



OF THE WORLD. 47 

In the mean while, there is a vast amount of rubbish of 
opinion to be cleared away; there are many experiments 
which the conservative and liberal law-makers will insist 
upon making. The ingenuity of the facile spirits of the 
liquor trade is not yet exhausted, and they may be counted 
upon to invent many new schemes to postpone the time of 
their enforced retirement. Wendell Phillips remarked, many 
years ago, that " it seems to be the way of all reforms to first 
exhaust every other mode of settlement before coming to the 
right one." We may look to see this history repeat itself 
in the present conflict between the stupendous liquor trade 
and the yet unharmonized interests of morality, commerce, 
and government. 

It is a growing conviction with many of the most earnest 
observers of the trend of events that in this particular mat- 
ter yet another phase of the history of higher civilization 
must be experienced; that is to say, " affairs must grow 
worse before they will grow better. " It is one of the recur- 
rent features of many reform histories that a severe retro- 
gression of opinion and action has preceded the final and 
effectual advance to victory. The last battle is the critical, 
pivotal event with one or the other of the contestants. It 
was philosophy, not fancy, that dictated the proverb: " The 
darkest hour is just before dawn." 

Wisdom urges that we calculate in prospect the possible 
worse features of this struggle before they are full upon us. 
How shall we imagine the liquor trade becoming a worse 
force against manhood, morals, and pure administration than 
it now is ? Let us confess that the forecast is one of such 
multiform possibilities of malignancy that the insentient pen 
shrinks from their suggestion. 

Among other vantages which the liquor trade will not be 
slow to improve is, first in importance, its power in politics. 
Having already experienced the value of unity of sentiment,, 



48 THE WHITE ANGEL 

solidity of organization, and the potentiality of an easily 
transferable balance of power in seasons of political extrem- 
ity with the main parties in the contest, these shrewd, selfish 
schemers are likely to nurse and wield this power yet more 
zealously and effectively in the future. In scores of States 
and hundreds of communities they have made themselves 
the centre factor of the political situation — a situation like 
to one of those measures whereof either end is less than half, 
and the middle makes the majority. In many localities of 
the Union to-day progressive legislation against the evils of 
the liquor trade is clearly impossible because of the attitude 
of the organized liquor-traffickers in local politics. Their* 
balance of power falls with the smashing effect of a trip- 
hammer upon the prospects of either political party that 
menaces the status of their trade. Therefore, so long as 
politicians are our leaders and party supremacy is a graver 
consideration than the general welfare, the liquor trade will 
compact its organizations the more and exert an increasing 
power in political affairs. Until the people shall come to 
the point of general revolt against this prominence of the 
liquor politicians, our legislation against the traffic must be 
weak, spasmodic, and often reactionary. 

Another feature of the evils that the liquor traffic genders 
and augments is the disregard of the Sabbath as a day for 
rest and religious exercises. The decay of popular respect 
for this institution of American civilization — institutional 
because both of the written charters of our first settlements 
and the lex non scripta of our national life, reinforced by 
the statutory safeguards of every commonwealth — is one of 
the most portentous evils of our later times. The advent of 
Continentalism, manifesting itself in the menstruum of its 
importation, in our foreign contingents of population, has 
brought us no more pernicious contribution than this antag- 
onism to Sabbath laws and observances. The loose and 



OF THF WORLD. 49 

liberal elements of our native population have made commou 
cause with these Sabbath-holidayists of Europe, and are 
rapidly converting the peaceful and piously-used Sabbath of 
America into the hebdomadal fete-day of Continental cus- 
toms. The saloon interest in America is intimately con- 
cerned with this revolution in national habitude. They 
want the dav of the workingman's rest for the more profit- 
able plying of their trade. They have learned the art of 
catering to the unsupplied wants of the masses of men, and 
bv the lavish use of those incentives to indulgence and self- 
pleasing which are potent to win the humble from their 
homes and congregate them in public-houses, they are find- 
ing the Sabbath-day crowds and trade their chiefest sources 
of profit. No wonder they fight savagely all laws designed 
to close their shops and suspend their traffic on that day. 
Small marvel that in Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. 
Louis, and a score of other cities the saloon fraternity seeks 
the mastery of municipal functions and paralyzes them on 
the subject of anti-saloon legislation. 

In another chapter of this work the undisputable evidence 
of these powerful and too frequently successful conspiracies 
against law, public order, and religious duty is elaborated. 
Our purpose here is only to indicate that there will be still 
further aggressions along this line by the liquor-traffickers. 
They will not rest until they have endeavored once, for all 
future time, to subject the Sabbath wholly to their own base 
uses. The religious people of the country, it seems, must 
wait to see open saloons on the Sabbath everywhere ; to hear 
the brazen horns of the beer-garden band making music for 
Sabbath dancers and drowning the voices of the church- 
bells calling to worship ; to see the drunken mob of the high- 
ways crowding from the pavements the church-goers and 
their children, and the vesper hour of God\s holy day re- 
sounding: with revelrv and radiant with rockets from the 



5-0 THE WHITE ANGEL 

furious festivals of the idolaters of Alcohol and Gambrinus* 
Then, and scarcely until then, do the sober observers of these 
signs expect to see the latent faith and convictions of the 
people aroused to courageous resistance and banded for the 
perfect, everlasting overthrow of the liquor traffic. 

From another point of view there comes into the account 
the saloon influence in the labor problem of the age. This 
difficult and dynamic problem, with its multiform inter- 
dependences, drawing upon theology, science, economics, 
and the humanities for the equations of its right solution, 
is abnormally and aggravatingly complicated by the saloon 
influence. To what purpose may theology apply the truths 
of its system to this problem while the tankard and the tin- 
pail are travelling from the tenement-table to the tap-room ? 
How shall science enter the lists for the emancipation of 
the toiling masses from monopolies and millionairism while 
biology ,is beaten from the doors of the laborers' saloon- 
refuges with beer-mugs and bung-starters? How shall 
political economy teach the poor the better ways of home- 
husbandry and wage-savings while the politician and his 
saloon-master are teaching them, between drinks, that the 
liquor license is the lever that lifts the load of taxation from 
the shoulders of the poor? How shall the humanities vin- 
dicate their missions and achieve their hoped-for evolutions 
while the rum-mills are manufacturing paupers, dependants, 
criminals, and hereditary social parasites faster than state 
and private benevolence can relieve them? It is evident 
that the labor problem can never be solved until there shall 
come a widespread awakening of the working masses to the 
robberies, deceptions, and degradations to which they have 
been subjected by this seductive and satanic system of strong 
drink. It is the dime of the day's-doer, and not the dollar 
of Dives, that the saloon-keeper looks to as the foundation 
of his fortune. Not then, until we can exhibit to our breth^ 



OF THE WORLD. 5 I 

ren of the blouse and the burlap apron that they are the dupes 
and diamond-diggers of these despots of the distilleries and 
doggeries, may we hope to eject from the problem of Labor's 
rights and rewards this baffling, blinding, and bestial ele- 
ment of drink and the robber-saloon. 

Confronted as we are with these and scores of other ob- 
structive facts germane to our general theme, we feel pain- 
fully how large and laborious is the duty we are set to per- 
form. No living man, with the spirit of this racial moral 
reform upon him, should be laggard in letting all his light 
shine upon this great theorem: That the total suppression 
of the system of liquor-trafficking and liquor-debauchery is 
a necessary condition precedent to a higher civilization, a 
worthier nationality, and a truly righteous government. 

Agitation is the watchword of all reform movements. 
The standard set forward beyond the old bivouac becomes 
a rally ing-point — often er, a storm-centre — for the contentions 
of the friends and foes of the movement. In this endeavor 
to supplant the habitudes of the world for centuries in the 
matter of strong drink with sobriety as a prevailing prin- 
ciple we are now in the era of agitation. The people need 
light upon every phase of the question. The vast magazine 
of facts accumulated from the experience of the race needs 
to be opened and emptied upon the understandings and 
hearts of the masses. The witness of history, the records 
of civilization and government, must be appealed to for 
precedents wherewith to estimate present tendencies and 
prejudge the future. The alarm-bells of the world's salvage 
corps — the press, the pulpit, the capitol — must be sounded 
until every citizen has been warned and every patriot mus- 
tered into the ranks of the rescuers of all that is noblest in 
man, best in government, and holiest in conduct before the 
God of the universe. There is an urgent demand for ' ' high 
thinking and plain speaking ' ' upon this theme. 



52 THE WHITE ANGEL 

The home, the home, THE HOME! The home of the 
family is the first fortress in which this gospel of salvation 
and patriotism must be preached. In the home is where the 
father — more than ever now the "father of his country," 
because he is the father of some of its future citizens — must 
give the witness and earnest of his example and his faith to 
this magnificent movement. In the home the mother — first 
and most potent mind-builder of the masters or marplots 
of the next generation — must lay deep and sure the founda- 
tions of faith and courage in her sons, that they may contend 
wisely and bravely for the righteousness and the needful 
supremacy of this doctrine of national freedom from the 
liquor traffic. In the home must we look for the new gen- 
eration that shall exhibit before angels, men, and devils a 
nation hereditarily free from the system and sorrows of strong 
drink. It is to the HOME, then, that we first appeal with 
this history and hortative, and if it finds not a welcome 
there, we may well abandon hope and hail despair as a de- 
liverer. 

Our appeal, however, is not alone to the home. We call 
upon the press, as a faithful chronicle of current life, not to 
smother the facts concerning this gigantic incubus upon the 
worth and weal of mankind. 

We appeal to the historian to weigh and give a right rela- 
tion in his annals to the baleful influences and pernicious 
factorages of the liquor traffic in these passing times. It is 
justly complained by the men of this generation that the 
history of Slavery was suppressed until Slavery itself, with 
most of its concurrent data, had passed away for ever. Eet 
not the future complain of us that we suppressed the Ilias 
malontm of the rum-evil until the traffic was abolished, and 
left its horrors to debatable imaginings rather than confessed 
in the stern, unimpeachable transcripts of the times present. 

We demand of the statesman, as well, that he shall not 



OF THE WORLD. 53 

sink his high instinctive prerogative in the legerdemains of 
the mere lawmonger or the prestidigitations of the pothouse 
politician. The function of the true statesman is like unto 
that of the pre-Christian prophets. He should feel all the 
burden of his people's sins, suffer for them the wrongs they 
reckon not, and forecast the ways and works of their recon- 
ciliation with the right and their redemption from the evils 
that imperil them. His constituency is the race as it should 
yet appear, and not the turbulent and " fierce democracie " 
of the tavern, the caucus, and the polling-booth. We should 
look for our true statesmen oftener in the sanctum, the clois- 
ter, and the student's chamber than in the White House or 
under the Domes and Flags. To them, the unexalted and 
untitled 

" Men who can lay 

The state's foundations broad and strong, 
Whose acts will bear the light of day, 
Who have no faith in charter'd wrong," 

we call to enter the lists of this worldwide contest, lead the 
gathering hosts of this humane crusade, and enrich the life 
of the world's to-morrow with the work of their wisdom and 
the purification they shall have wrought in the processes of 
civilization. 

This book, therefore, imports its own dedication : to whom- 
soever it appeals and for whomsoever it contains a message 
or a ministry it is personally addressed. The authors have 
no higher purpose, can conceive of none loftier, than to 
paint before the eyes of the right-thinking people of this 
country the panorama of this prolific curse, and hold up, 
whether men will heed or hate, the God-ordered remedy 
which the testing of the ages is bringing to its triumph. 
We have sought faithfully to do the work that seemed most 
desirable for the enlightenment of our fellow-citizens, for 
the instruction of the home-circles, for the inspiration of the 



54 THE WHITE ANGEL 

forward column in the movement. Others have explored 
this same field, have labored upon these same lines, doubt- 
less in better fashion than we have, and certainly with profit 
to many thousands; but our work has taken its treatment, 
unique or otherwise, from a hundred instances of innocent 
ignorance and a thousand queries for "more light" that 
have appealed to us personally. 

We have labored in the faith that this specific reform, the 
genius of this Liberty of Life — pure, sober, patriotic, Chris- 
tian life — is 

THE WHITE ANGEL OF THE WORLD, 

whose ministerings and triumphs mean more of the Divine 
Master's ' ' peace on earth, good-will toward men. ' ' Through 
her influence, converting men to wisdom and convincing 
nations of righteousness, there must come a great day in the 
world's history when the knell of this traffic shall be rung 
on every shore; when the bells in every steeple shall 

" Ring out old shapes of foul disease, 
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; 
Ring out the thousand wars of old, 
Ring in the thousand years of peace. 

" Ring in the valiant man and free, 
The eager heart, the kindlier hand; 
Ring out the darkness of the land, 
Ring in the Christ that is to be !" 

It is natural for the promoters of the traffic to bitterly 
decry the prospect of their overthrow. It is natural for the 
politician in affiliation with them to oppose the banishment 
of his best allies. It is natural for the diseased and deluded 
victims of the rum-curse to resist the abolition of their en- 
slaver. It is natural for the timid and shortsighted good 
people, whose thoughts are prone to pessimism, to declare 
that "It can't be done!" 



OF THE WORLD. 55 

But it is being done ! In all the civilized regions of the 
world the laws are being increased and the limits of this 
perilous traffic are being decreased. Monarchs and parlia- 
ments, presidents and peoples, are being made to see more 
and more clearly that this traffic is " a sin against God and 
a crime against man. ' ' 

One of the most significant signs of world-progress on 
this subject is found in the favor which the nations interested 
are giving to the demand for the prohibition of the liquor 
trade in the newly-opened regions of Africa. The rum- 
traders of England, New England, and Continental Europe, 
hastening to debauch the rude peoples of that country, are 
met with a sentiment which astonishes them, and forewarns 
them that the Christianity and humanity of the age are mov- 
ing to prevent their iniquity. Not only do the bishops and 
missionaries in the great " Dark Continent " protest against 
the rum traffic, but the native chiefs have been quick to see 
the dangers of strong drink, and demand immunity from it 
for their peoples. Stanley, the great explorer, also raises 
his powerful voice in appeal that the nations will not sacri- 
fice the present peace and future prospects of the dusky 
millions with the bane of all the world. These evidences 
of a growing right conscience among the rulers of the world 
are worthy to be lauded as tokens of the coming age of 
sobriety — as the most recent and hopeful of the victories of 
the White Angel. 

Another bright token of the "good times ahead" is 
found in the recent statistics of the growth of church-build- 
ing in America, and the tremendous cutting down of the 
numbers of the liquor-dealers. In 1890 the churches of 
America completed an average of eleven houses of worship 
for every working day, the Methodists alone building a new 
church for every six hours of every secular day! During the 
previous fiscal year of the United States Government, as 



56 THE WHITE ANGEL 

shown by its official records, there was a cutting down of 
liquor-dealers to the number of 20,837, or over ten per 
centum of the whole array. 

Yet another sign which is one of exceeding discontent to 
the liquor-dealers is the fact that in the past decade, out of 
over five millions of votes cast in the States directly upon 
the questions of statutory and constitutional prohibition, 
less than two per centum of the whole number constituted 
the aggregate majority against the measure. The liquor- 
people begin already to argue that much further progress of 
public sentiment against them will precipitate a national 
issue on the prohibition principle, and they tremble in dread 
of the very probable result of such a trial. 

The most recent steps in Congressional treatment of this 
traffic are encouraging. The sitting Congress, after eight 
years of effort on the part of its friends, has received from 
the House Committee a favorable report upon the bill to 
create the u Commission upon the Alcoholic Liquor Traffic. " 
The purpose of such commission, if ever appointed, will 
be to fully investigate and report upon the true nature, con- 
dition, and effects of the liquor trade in the United States. 
It is a fair and non-partisan measure, but has been savagely 
opposed by the liquor-traders, " who love darkness rather 
than light." The friends of national sobriety hope that, 
at last, this much-demanded measure may be enacted, and 
the light let in upon the ways and wickedness of this im- 
mense and immoral traffic. 

A committee of the House of Representatives has also 
agreed to report a bill to prohibit the liquor traffic in the 
District of Columbia, which is virtually Washington City, 
the capital of the nation. This is a measure for the enact- 
ment of which the temperance people have long petitioned 
Congress. It would identify national authority and legis- 



OF THE WORLD. 57 

lation with the principle of Prohibition, and be a long stride 
in the direction of the national reform. 

After an extended series of variant decisions growing out 
of the liquor-legislation of the Western Prohibition States, 
the Supreme Court of the United States has finally re- 
affirmed the great fundamental principle that the right to 
sell liquors is not a natural right of the citizen. Per conse- 
quence, it is only a permissive privilege, under local control, 
to be granted or withheld at the pleasure of the constituency 
affected. This latest and best decision of that vital point 
will have a constantly increasing influence upon the growth 
and permanency of prohibitive legislation.. 

Knough has now been premised to reveal to the reader the 
importance of understanding the history of the liquor evil 
from the earliest periods of history, in order to an intelligent 
and competent dealing with it in the more pronounced lines 
of the modern reformation. Geo. Wm. Curtis says that 
" precedents are the finger-posts to future history;" and in 
no history that is to be made in future generations is it more 
essential that precedents should be regarded than in the 
progress projected for this work of sobering the nations. 

We have attempted to group in this work the history and 
pertinent facts of the present life of this movement in such 
clean and tangible shape as will promote home instruction 
upon the pressing question, equip every crusader with a full 
armory of invincible truths, and encourage, by the facts to 
the most recent date, the hopes of those who rightly believe 
that this reformation is the next great revolution, peacefully 
to be wrought, in the history of nations and the life of hu- 
manity. 

We commit these labors to the zeal and aggressive co-ope- 
ration of all those who are joined by faith and hope and 
charity to the mission of 



$S THE WHITE ANGEL 



The White Angel of the World. 

Speaking the truth that frees, 

Breaking sepulchre seals, 
Singing the hymns of Peace, 

Bearing the balm that heals, 
Out of the Courts of God, 

Out of the Gates of Light, 
Faith-panoplied, Gospel-shod, 

Cometh this Angel White ! 



Minister of His throne 

Whose kingdom hath no end, 
Coming to help God's own 

Their souls to safe defend, 
Driving despair away, 

Flooding their gloom with light, 
Leading them into Day, — 

Lo ! the World's Angel White ! 

Holding the Cross on high, 

Wielding the Spirit's Sword, 
Her enemies turn and fly 

From hearing His Holy Word; 
Worker of Peace and Life, 

Herald of Truth and Right, 
Victor o'er Sin and Strife, — 

Hail, Holy Angel White! 

Chanting thy praise, the world 

Finds Heaven on earth begun; 
The flags of Rum are furled, 

Soberness follows the Sun; 
The nations together rejoice, 

Marching out of their Night, 
Heeding thy loving voice, 

Victorious Anerel White ! 



CHAPTER II. 

A BACKWARD REVIEW OF THE BRUTALIZING EVIL. 

A LONG look backward through the pages of history 
-^*- reveals to us one striking and not very creditable fact. 
Everywhere we behold the record of intemperance. From 
a remote period of the past the thirst for stimulants seems 
to have been uuquenched, and almost unquenchable. Man, 
made by his God above the brute creation, has brought 
himself often to the level of the brutes through his mad 
passion for strong drink. Nothing has been more needless, 
nothing more ruinous, yet nothing has been more universal, 
and savage and civilized men alike have made the intox- 
icating cup their joy and their bane. 

The causes of this distorted appetite it is not our purpose 
to consider: it is with its effects alone that we are concerned. 
That alcoholic drink is in no sense necessary to the human 
frame needs no argument. Millions of men and women are 
to-day happy and healthful to whom it is an unknown bev- 
erage. That it is ruinous to the health and fortunes of those 
who partake of it is equally obvious. Endless examples of 
diseased bodies and destitute families attest this fact. That 
it arouses evil passions and base desires and gives rise to wild 
and often insane fancies in the minds of its devotees, all men 

59 



60 THE WHITE ANGEL 

will admit. That ruin, crime, disease, insanity, and almost 
' ' all the ills that flesh is heir to ' ' follow in its train, is a fact 
everywhere acknowledged and deplored. Yet in despite of 
all this the rage for stimulants continues with little abate- 
ment, and new myriads rush annually into the pit which 
rum digs for its victims, until, to judge from the fervent 
welcome with which it is received and the trembling eager- 
ness of its thirsting devotees, any one ignorant of its effects 
might deem the intoxicating cup a beneficent gift from the 
gods to man. 

"Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad." 
This ancient proverb seems as if specially designed to apply 
to the slaves of alcoholic drink, when we consider the mad- 
ness of their infatuation and the almost inevitable destruc- 
tion that ends their course. 

Spasmodic efforts have been made in the past to antag- 
onize the work of this demon of strong drink. Prohibitive 
edicts have been promulgated against it by rulers and law- 
givers, religious sects have forbidden its use, social clubs 
have deprecated excessive indulgence, yet never until the 
present century has a determined and persistent popular 
effort been made to diminish its influence, never before has 
"total abstinence " been made the rallying cry of a large 
section of the general public, never has intemperance been 
made to tremble on its throne, as during the existing tem- 
perance reform. The ' ' despised minority ' ' of temperance 
advocates of the early days of the century is rapidly grow- 
ing toward an irresistible majority, and the day must and 
will come when the ruinous march of intemperance shall be 
stayed, and man be rescued from the misery to which he has 
been for ages exposed. 

It is our purpose to review the noble work of this band 
of earnest and devoted reformers, from c ' the day of small 
things" of its origin to its present powerful position among 



OF THE WORLD, 6 1 

the moving forces of civilized mankind. In this connection 
the record of drunkenness in the past is of importance, as 
proving the long slavery of mankind to this severe task- 
master, and showing what an unmitigated evil it has been, 
from the era when man first drank the fermented juice of 
the grape to the opening of the nineteenth century, at 
which period a bedlam of intoxication seemed to have been 
let loose upon mankind. 

The doleful tale of intemperance comes to us from all the 
nations of the past. In Asia, the annals of China, India, 
Persia, and Palestine are full of evidence of its prevalence. 
Egypt, Greece, and Rome tell the same story. The bar- 
barians of Northern Europe and the developing nations of 
the Middle Ages were steeped in a brutal intoxication that 
fatally relaxed the energies of some, and drove others, mad 
with drink, to deeds of revolting barbarity. 

Iu reading the details of this long and saddening story we 
may almost say that for ages past the world has been drunk, 
and is only now slowly growing sober, so full is the history 
of nations of records of the drunkenness of kings, priests, 
and people, and so incapable of stemming the tide of 
intemperance have proved the occasional prohibitive edicts 
and the many wise warnings of the rulers and reformers of 
old. 

The use of intoxicating beverages is indicated in the 
oldest annals of mankind, and probably began long before 
the first page of history was written. It is true that man 
may have lived long upon the earth in a state of enforced 
sobriety before the fatal art of manufacturing alcoholic liq- 
uors was known. Yet this is an art easily learned. The 
juices of fruits and the steeped starches of grain pass 
through a natural chemical change of which alcohol is one 
of the chief products. The abundant juice of the grape, in 
particular, was probably early extracted and used as an 



62 THE WHITE ANGEL 

agreeable beverage, and it needed but to let this stand for a 
limited period in a suitable temperature to convert a harm- 
less and wholesome drink into one of the greatest enemies 
of mankind — the perilous draught called wine. It is an 
unfortunate circumstance in nature that alcohol is so easily 
and cheaply produced, and from so great a variety of abun- 
dant materials. Far better would it have been for mankind 
if it had been as difficult to obtain as the costly attar of 
roses, or as expensive as the dissolved pearls of the Egyp- 
tian queen. Had nature so provided, the story of the world 
would have been widely different in its details and far more 
agreeable in the telling. 

CHINA. 

The story of intoxication flows from the East to the West„ 
and we may follow the same course in reviewing its history. 
What is perhaps the earliest record of the vice is found in 
the very ancient classics of China, the Shoo-King, or ' * Book 
of History," and the She-King, or " Book of Odes." From 
these works we have satisfactory evidence that wine and 
" spirits " were used in that country at a very remote epoch. 
The evil must have risen to dangerous proportions as early 
as three or four thousand years ago. The drinking of ' ' rice 
wine" is said to have been prohibited, under severe penal- 
ties, as long ago as 2207 b. c. If this is authentic, it is the 
earliest known instance of prohibition. 

The Shoo-King contains several very ancient statements 
of the drunkenness of monarchs, a sure indication of disso- 
lute habits in the people. The oldest of these is dated 2187 
b. c, at which period u T'ae K'ang occupied the throne like 
a personator of the dead. By idleness and dissipation he 
extinguished his virtue, till the black-haired people all began 
to waver in their allegiance. ' ' 

This ancient wassailer was visited by his five brothers, who 



OF THE WORLD. 6£ 

sought to recall him to the paths of virtue and temperance, 
and save him from the disasters that impend 

" When the palace is a wild of lust, 
And the country a wild for hunting, 
When wine is sweet and music the delight. 
The existence of any one of these things 
Has never been but the prelude to ruin." 

A second statement is of the date 2154 or 2127 b. c. It is 
of curious interest, as showing that at that early date China 
had a ' ' Board of Astronomy, ' ' whose ministers, He and Ho, 
were so ' ' sunk in wine ' ' as to permit an eclipse to come on_ 
them unawares: 

"On the first day of the last month of autumn the sun. 
and moon did not meet harmoniously in Fang. The blind 
musicians beat their drums; the inferior officers and common- 
people bustled and ran about. He and Ho, however, as if 
they were mere personators of the dead in their offices, heard 
nothing and knew nothing, so stupidly went they astray 
from their duty in the matter of the heavenly appearances, 
and rendering themselves liable to the death appointed by 
the former kings. The statutes of government say, ' When 
they anticipate the time, let them be put to death without 
mercy; when they are behind the time, let them be put to 
death without mercy.' " 

The observation of eclipses must have been of high im- 
portance to the ancient Chinese when such a penalty as this 
was exacted for carelessness. It was probably a requirement 
of the ancient religion not ' ' to allow the regulations of 
Heaven to get into disorder." 

In 1 122 the emperor Chow, of the Yin dynasty, became a 
drunkard, "being lost and maddened with wine." As a 
result of his dissolute behavior the dynasty was overthrown 
and a new line of emperors came to the crown. The first 
of these issued, about 1116 b. c, a remarkable edict, "The 



64 THE WHITE ANGEL 

Announcement about Drunkenness," of which the essential 
parts are well worth quoting. " Our people," it says, u have 
been greatly disorganized, and have lost their virtue, which 
can be traced to their indulgence in spirits." It goes on to 
speak of the habits of the late monarch: " He gave himself 
up completely to spirits, and though the extinction of the 
dynasty of Yin was imminent, this gave him no concern. 

The rank odor of the people's resentments and the 

drunkenness of his hordes of creatures went loudly up on 
high, so that Heaven sent ruin down on Yin, and showed 
no love for Yin, because of such excesses." The edict ends 
with an announcement of very severe penalties for drunken- 
ness: " If you are told that there are companies who drink 
together, do not fail to apprehend them all and send them 
to Chow, where I will put them to death. As to the min- 
isters and officers of Yin, who have been led to it and been 
addicted to drink, it is not necessary to put them to death; 
let them be taught for a time. If they keep these lessons, I 
will give them bright distinction. If you disregard my les- 
sons, then I, the one man, will show you no pity. ' ' 

This striking fragment of ancient literature has in it the 
elements of a somewhat effective temperance address. The 
story of intoxication begins, as it ends, in ruin and desola- 
tion. A dynasty of powerful emperors, who had reigned for 
many centuries in China, successfully resisting all enemies, 
external and internal, falls at last before the insidious assault 
of the wine-cup, and ends in a king who proves unfit to 
govern either a nation or himself, indulging in besotting 
revelry and surrounding himself with drunken satellites, 
until Heaven (the supreme deity of the Chinese) withdraws 
his countenance, and sweeps a dynasty which has lost its 
virtue from the throne which it dishonors. It is an old 
story, which has been told, in varying phrase, far too often 
during the history of mankind. 



OF THE WORLD. 



65 



Succeeding emperors of China showed a similar disposi- 
tion to check the drunkenness which threatened the ruin of 
the nation which they governed. They went so far as to 
order that the vine should be uprooted and destroyed, in 
order that the means of intoxication might 
be put beyond the reach of their people. 
Two of the great religious reformers, Con- 
fucius and Mencius, deprecated the exces- 
sive use of wine in religious services and 
warned their follow- 
ers against drunken- 
ness. It is probable 
that these^measures 
and admonitions, and 




the teachings of the Buddhist priests, who were pledged to 
strict abstinence, arrested the progress of the vice, and for a 
period brought back China to a reasonable sobriety. 

The ' ( spirits ' ' spoken of by Chinese writers seem to have 
been a fermented liquor prepared from rice, though it is pos- 



66 THE WHITE ANGEL 

sible that the art of distillation was discovered at an early- 
date. Of this, however, nothing is clearly known, and all 
we can be sure of is that, at some time after the tenth cen- 
tury A. d., a fiery spirit known as " corn-brandy " came into 
common use. This is still a favorite beverage. In the words 
of M. Hue, a French missionary and traveller, ' • they swal- 
low it like water, and many ruin themselves with brandy. 
In company, or even alone, they pass whole days and nights 
in drinking successive cups of it, until their intoxication 
makes them incapable of carrying the cup to their lips. 
When this passion has once seized on the head of a fam- 
ily, poverty, with all its lugubrious train, very soon makes 
its entrance into the house." " One can hardly imagine 
what pleasure the Chinese find in imbibing these burning 
drinks, which are absolutely like liquid fire, and, moreover, 
very ill-tasted. ' ' 

M. Hue need not have gone so far from home to find mul- 
titudes indulging in liquors as fiery and as ill-tasted, and 
deriving from them what they call pleasure, but which is 
better denominated as "poverty, with all its lugubrious 
train. ' ' The effects of yielding to this dangerous appetite 
are the same all the world over. As to the drinking habits 
of the modern Chinese, however, travellers do not agree. 
Some insist that drunkenness is common, others that it is 
„ rare. Count Mickiewicz, who has lately returned from an 
important business trip to China, is reported as saying that 
among the better classes of the Chinese people the use of 
the various kinds of intoxicating liquors is almost unknown* 
that a man who drinks brandy there " is ostracized;" is 
"placed wholly beyond the pale of decent association;" 
that ■ ( he might as well be dead " " This, ' ' he says, ' ■ is 
owing partly to a general distrust of the reliability of per- 
sons under the influence of liquor. They are looked upon 
as we regard those subject to spells of insanity." Then the 



OF THE WORLD. 6j 

cost of liquor is so great in comparison with the Chinaman's 
earnings that " one who does buy it appears in the light of 
a fool, while the use of it gives to the user a reputation 
for insanity ;' ' and therefore ' ' the national sentiment is 
thoroughly against it. ' ' He also adds that ' ' the sentiment 
is the same as to opium with the better classes as in regard 
to liquor. No self-respecting Chinaman would smoke opium 
or use it in any form. ' ' 

The difference of opinion concerning Chinese drinking is 
probably due to a difference in the class of the population 
observed, and still more to the habits of drinkers. Exces- 
sive intemperance is perhaps confined in great part to the 
lower classes, while its devotees seem to be solitary in their 
indulgences and to keep out of sight when under the influ- 
ence of liquor. 

INDIA. 

The custom of drinking during religious ceremonies, 
which evidently prevailed in China, appears to have been 
carried to a much greater excess in ancient India. ' * Soma, ' ' 
the intoxicating liquor of the Vedic days, * was offered as a 
libation to the gods, and came to be occasionally worshipped 
as a god itself. Even the deities were sadly given to drink, 
if we may judge from the Rig-Veda, and the priests and 
worshippers probably followed their example without stint. 

"Come hither, O Indra, to our sacrifice," say the Vedic 
hymns, "come hither, and intoxicate thyself." "Called 
by us, O Indra, sit down and intoxicate thyself with us, thy 
friends." Such was the prayer of Hindu banqueters. 

Indra was the chief god to whom these libations of soma 
were paid. The sacrifice was made by pouring the intoxi- 
cating liquor on the sacred fire, whence it was supposed to 
be drunk by the gods. The hymns of the Rig- Veda are full 

* Said *o have b^n made from the sap of Asdepias acida, a succulent plant, 
Anxed with milk and fermented. 



68 THE WHITE ANGEL 

of allusions to it: "Indra delights in it from his birth: 
lord of bay horses, we wake thee up with sacrifices. " u Indra 
verily is the chief drinker of the soma among gods and men, 
the drinker of the effused libation, the accepter of all kinds 
of offerings." 

The soma sacrifices are now rarely offered in India. Dr. 
Haug, who was permitted to taste the liquid now used, said 
that it " appears whitish, has a very stringent taste, is bitter, 
but not sour; it is a very nasty drink, and has some intoxi- 
cating effect. ' ' 

Another and much stronger drink of the people of ancient 
India, also mentioned in the Vedas, is called ' ' Sura. ' ' In 
early times it was made from the juice of a tall native grass, 
together with curds, honey, melted butter, barley, and water. 
At a later period rice seems to have become its principal 
source, while black pepper, barley, lemon-juice, ginger, and 
hot water became ingredients of this intricate compound. 
This strong liquor was not employed in the sacrifices, and 
in one of the Yedic hymns its use is severely reprobated. 
" It is our condition that is the cause of our sinning, ' ' says 
the ancient hymner. " It is intoxication." Sura is said to 
have been a maddening and dangerous liquor, which often 
drove men to acts of crime. 

It is impossible, at this remote epoch, to learn what effect 
their indulgence in intoxicating beverages had upon the 
people of ancient India. We know that they were orig- 
inally an energetic race, before whose invading march the 
aborigines of the country sank into subjection. This vigor 
was followed by an era of physical and moral innervation 
which yet persists. Intoxication may have been one of the 
causes of this degeneracy. 

At a later date a vigorous effort was made to stem the tide 
of intemperance that had swept over the land. Sura seems 
at this era to have replaced soma as an ordinary beverage, 



OF THE WORLD. 69 

and to have become a national curse. The ' ' L,aws of Manu, ' ' 
a celebrated Brahmanical work of unknown date, but prob- 
ably written between the fifth and tenth centuries b. c, 
sternly prohibits sura-drinking with severe penalties. Intoxi- 
cation is given as one of the ten vices for which a king 
■ ' may lose even his life. ' ' A contract made by a drunken 
man was declared void, and money due for drink could not 
be collected from the son of the debtor. 

A soldier, merchant, or priest who drank to intoxication 
was considered an offender in the highest degree. "For 
drinking spirits let the mark of a vintner's flag be impressed 
on the forehead with a hot iron. ' ' Such drunkards were to 
be excluded from social life and forced to wander as vaga- 
bonds over the face of the earth. 

Another penalty was the drinking of flaming spirit: "Any 
twice-born man who has intentionally drunk spirit of rice 
through perverse delusion of mind may drink more spirit 
in flame, and atone for his offence by severely burning his 
body." "A priest who has drunk spirituous liquors shall 
migrate into the form of a smaller or larger worm or insect, 
of a moth, of a fly feeding on ordure, or of some ravenous 
animal. ' ' This was no light penalty to those who believed 
in the doctrine of transmigration of souls. 

Though there is reason to believe that the " L,aws of 
Manu ' ' was a priestly work, whose penalties were seldom 
if ever put into effect, yet there is little doubt that the caste 
of Brahmans and the pious members of the other castes 
became averse to intoxication. The sect of Buddhists, which 
arose about this period, did important work in the cause of 
temperance by requiring total abstinence in its priests and 
forbidding intoxication to the laity. The broad extension 
of this religion throughout Northern Asia must have exerted 
a valuable prohibitive influence while its doctrines were new 
and fresh, and, though little good can be expected from the 



70 THE WHITE ANGEL 

debased superstition which it has since become, it is still an 
aid to the cause of temperance. 

At a later date drunkenness probably regained much of 
its early ascendency among the people of India. No less 
than twelve kinds of liquor, prepared from various fruits 
and grains, are said to have been used, while wine was 
largely imported. In modern times, among the ' ' benefits ' ' 
conferred by Christian civilization upon India may be named 
the importation of ardent spirits, such as brandy, rum, gin, 
etc. The Bast India Company encouraged the distillation 
and use of these liquors as a source of revenue. Arrack, a 
powerful native spirit distilled from rice, was also largely 
produced, and drunkenness is to-day very common in the 
lower castes, though the higher castes generally abstain from 
all intoxicating beverages. 

In addition to the common arrack, which is in most gen- 
eral use, there is a fiery spirit called Pariah arrack, distilled 
from the sap of the palm and the thorn-apple, which is used 
by the most besotted drinkers, and is a highly dangerous bev- 
erage. 

The English in India have incurred a deep debt of respon- 
sibility by fostering the introduction and manufacture of 
alcoholic drinks in this populous empire. By so doing they 
have gone far to negative the efforts of the native priests, 
and given to a people of low morality and strong appetites 
redoubled means of indulgence in intoxication. 

Where the wine-cup is lord the people are slaves and vic- 
tims, and none of the tyrants of the East ever treated their 
subjects with more remorseless cruelty than does this deadly 
"lord of misrule," this basely-misnamed "friend of man- 
kind." "Decanter and glass! woe and ruin!" exclaimed a 
true "friend to mankind" in India, on seeing these mis- 
chief-making objects on the table of his weak-willed friend. 
" Do you not see the venomous serpent that is hidden in the 



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glass before you, my dear friend, lying in wait to sting you 
with its poisonous fangs ? Shall I not, with one blow from 
this good cane, destroy the lurking demon of the bottle and 
save you from the evil which threatens your life and happi- 
ness?" Well would it be if all who make drink their god 
could hear and heed this trenchant exclamation. 




The religious debauchery of very ancient times has left 
its mark in a modern festival in which all classes of Hindus 
indulge in beastly drunkenness. As described by Rousselet 
and others, this annual carnival lasts several days, during 
which the most licentious debauchery and disorder prevail 
in every class of society. Decency is banished, persons of 
the greatest respectability, without regard to rank or age, 
join the common people in unrestrained orgies, the nautch- 
girls perform dances which are utterly destitute of propriety, 
and the bacchanalian festival continues until the liquor, 



72 THE WHI1E ANGEL 

which is at the root of this debasing saturnalia, is exhausted. 
As seen by Rousselet: "Groups of native wretches, dead 
drunk, were wallowing in the gutters, and at every step 
the most disgusting debauchery was exhibited with unblush- 
ing effrontery." 

Could a stronger arraignment of the effects of the wine- 
cup be presented than this shameless exhibition among a 
people who, when in their sober senses, are quiet, well- 
behaved, and respecters of the ordinary decencies of life? 
Intoxication cuts the reins of morality, and lets profligacy, 
with all its detestable train, reel in unrestrained riot through- 
out the land. 

PERSIA. 

The priestly indulgence of ancient India does not appear 
to have been repeated in Persia. Libations to the gods were 
common,, but ' ' Homa, ' ' the sacred liquor (perhaps identical 
with the Hindu soma), was forbidden to priests and people. 
Zoroaster declares that "temperance is the strength of the 
mind; a man is dead in the intoxication of wine." Yet the 
Zend-Avesta, the sacred volume of the Zoroastrians, indi- 
cates that drunkenness was not infrequent. Homa was a 
common beverage, as also was another intoxicating drink 
called Zanga. 

At a later date the vine was cultivated and intemperance 
grew very prevalent. The story of the discovery of the 
intoxicating qualities of wine, as quoted by Sir James Mal- 
colm from an old author, is worth repeating. 

It states that Jem Sheed, the founder of Persepolis, was so 
fond of grapes that he kept a large quantity concealed in a 
vault for his personal use. On visiting his treasure one day 
he was surprised to find that many of the clusters had been 
crushed, while the escaped juice was so sour that he believed 
it to be poisonous. As an experiment he filled some vessels 



OF THE WORLD. J$ 

with the liquid and placed them in his own apartment, 
labelling them ' ' Poison " as a useful advice to meddlers. 

The result was that a favorite concubine, who was such 
a sufferer from nervous debility that she meditated suicide 
as an escape from her affliction, opened one of these vessels 
of seeming poison and swallowed its contents. Quickly 
stupefied with the draught, she fell into a sleep, and on 
waking, to her surprise and delight, found herself free from 
pain. The effect was so alluring that she continued to drink 
the monarch's "poison" until none of it was left. Being 
charged with the theft, she confessed it, and so glowingly 
described the delightful and health-giving qualities of the 
liquid that Jem Sheed caused large quantities of grapes to 
be gathered and the juice pressed from them. Ere long the 
whole court was singing the praises of the Zeher-e-Koosh, 
or the "delightful poison," as they named the new-discov- 
ered beverage. 

Though this story is doubtless fabulous, it indicates that 
the use of wine in Persia was of comparatively modern intro- 
duction. Yet in the imperial era of that kingdom wine 
became so common that, as Rawlinson remarks, it replaced 
water as the ordinary beverage, and each man prided him- 
self on the quantity he could drink. Most banquets ended 
in general intoxication. Drunkenness, indeed, came to be 
a sort of national institution, since once a year, at the feast 
of Mithra, the king of Persia was bound, by the law of 
custom, to drink himself into a state of intoxication. 

In this connection Herodotus makes a statement of an 
extraordinary character, though not without parallel else- 
where. " It is a very general practice, ' ' he says of the Per- 
sians, ( ' to deliberate upon affairs of weight when they are 
drunk; and then on the morrow, when they are sober, the 
decision to which they came — and not before — is put before 
them by the master of the house in which it was made. And 



74 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



if it is then approved of, they act upon it; if not, they set it 
aside. Sometimes, however, they are sober at their first 
deliberation. But in this case they always reconsider the 
matter under the influence of wine." 

The first of these two methods was decidedly the best. 
The u sober second thought " of the next day's deliberation 
was certainly a wholesome corrective to the counsels of the 
^vine-cup. Yet no one can be surprised at the fall of an 




empire in which the immorality of drunkenness had attained 
to such a pitch, and in which men got drunk as a prelimi- 
nary to settling ' ' affairs of weight. ' ' If we can conceive 
of the members of the American Congress beginning their 
deliberations by drinking whiskey to excess, we may form 
some idea of the wisdom of the councils of ancient Persia. 
A sober reconsideration of the debate might remedy the mis- 
chief here as there, but those who have listened to the deep 
wisdom with which a group of boozy tavern-loungers settle 



OF THE WORLD. 75 

the affairs of a nation may form their own conclusions as to 
the condition into which the wisdom of the wine-cup must 
have brought the councils of Persia. 

On one occasion, at least, the Persians used this potent 
enemy, which was destined to ruin themselves, to the ruin 
of their enemies. Herodotus states that Cyrus overcame the 
fierce Massagetse by the aid of the wine-cup. He took the 
advice of his prisoner Crcesus, and left his camp with but a 
feeble guard to the attack of the enemy. In the tents he 
had left prepared feasts and "flowing goblets of wine." 
Waiting until this ' ' fell destroyer ' ' had done its work, he 
attacked and completely defeated the foe. 

This story is not very creditable to Cyrus as a man, how- 
ever it may be to his shrewdness as a general. But it cer- 
tainly is a clear proof of the truth of the old proverb, that 
"when the wine is in the wit is out." Herodotus goes on 
to say that the queen of the Massagetse severely upbraided 
Cyrus for his treachery, saying: 

1 ' Cyrus, insatiable as you are for blood, be not too elated 
with your recent success. When you yourself are overcome 
with wine, what follies do you not commit ? By penetrating 
your bodies it makes your language more insulting. By this 
poison you have conquered my son, and not by your skill or 
your bravery. ' ' 

Wine had its share in another and the most notable suc- 
cess of the founder of the Persian empire. Belshazzar, the 
king of Babylon, spent his time in revelry while Cyrus was 
making a pathway into his seemingly impregnable city by 
draining the river that ran through its walls. On the night 
of the fall of the great city the proud monarch made high 
festival, bringing out the sacred vessels which Nebuchad- 
nezzar, his grandfather, had taken from the temple at Jeru- 
salem, and using them as wine-cups for himself and his 
drunken courtiers. Then strangely appeared on the palace 



7 6 THE WHITE ANGEL 

walls those gleaming words of fate, Mene, Mene, Tekel, 
Upharsin, interpreted by the prophet Daniel to indicate 
the coming downfall of him who had "been weighed and 
found wanting." The picture, as drawn in the sacred Scrip- 
ture, is one of the most striking delineations in all history. 
The image of the astounded revellers, glaring with stupefied 
eyes on the shining message of fate and listening in affright 
to the words of the prophet while the army of the destroyer 
was breaking into ' ' mighty Babylon, ' ' has been a favorite 
theme of art, and no more apt illustration of the dangers of 
over-indulgence in the wine-cup could well be given. 

In modern Persia the drunkenness of ancient times seems 
in some measure to be repeated, despite the fact that the 
Persians are Mohammedans. In regard to wine-drinking 
they are the least strict of all the followers of the Arabian 
prophet. Many of them drink distilled spirits on the ground 
that Mohammed prohibited wine only. 

Tavernier says of the Armenians that no feast-giver thinks 
he has done his duty as a host until his guests are too drunk 
to find their way out of the room. Drunkenness is equally 
common with the Georgians. Sir J. Chardin says that wine 
is so exceedingly cheap in Persia that as much as a horse 
can carry of the best can be bought for twelve shillings. He 
thus describes an entertainment at the house of a prince: 

"The prince's nearest relations, selecting about eight in 
number, were first presented with vessels of wine, which 
they drank standing up. The same bowls, being filled again, 
were carried to the next persons, and so on, until the health 
had been drunk round. After this, the next health was 
drunk in larger cups, for it was the custom of the country to 
drink the healths of great personages in large vessels. This 
was done on purpose to make their guests more effectually 
drunk. This desired climax would soon be attained when we 
consider the size of their glasses. The first glasses used were 



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77 



of the common sort, but the last contained about a pint and 
a half of wine. ' ' 

It would not be easy for their brother nations of the West 
to surpass the drinking-feats of these Asiatic Aryans, though, 
until well within the present century, they were quite com- 
petent to equal them. In the days of the ' ' sideboard prac- 




tice, ' ' which still prevails abroad, and in former years was 
dangerously common in America, men of the highest respect- 
ability vied with each other in the guzzling of intoxicating 
liquors, while to make his guests drunk was generally con- 
sidered a mark of hospitable instincts on the part of a host. 



EGYPT. 

The Egyptian priests are said to have been very abstemious 
during the extended period of their early history. Plutarch 
writes of them that "as to wine, those who wait upon the 
gods in the city of the Sun carry absolutely none into the 
temple, as something not seemly to drink in the daytime, 



jS THE WHITE ANGEL 

the Eord and King looking on; but the other priests use 
wine, a little, indeed, and they have many sacred solemnities 
free from it. Even the kings themselves, being of the order 
of priests, have their wine given them according to a mea- 
sure as prescribed in the sacred books. They began to drink 
this in the time of Psammetichus (600 b. a), previous to 
which they drank none at all. They think that drinking 
wine in quantities makes them silly and mad." 

Among the people, however, wine-drinking was more com- 
mon, and the monuments of Egypt depict scenes of wine- 
making, of serving wine to guests at banquets, and of ser- 
vants carrying their masters home drunk. Women as well 
as men are depicted in a state of intoxication. An official, 
writing about the time of Moses, says: "If beer gets into a 
man, it overcomes his mind. Thou art then like an oar 
starting from its place, which is unmanageable in every 
way. ..... Thou knowest that wine is an abomination. ' ' 

To translate this into the parlance of modern rowers, we 
might say that a man who is drunk is perpetually ■ ' catching 
crabs ' ' with the oars of his mind. It is of interest to find 
that all the moderate and wise-headed men of the past agree 
fully with the modern verdict, that ' ' wine is an abomina- 
tion " and "makes men silly and mad." 

All the wine of the past, however, was not intoxicating. 
The unfermented juice of the grape was in common use as 
a beverage. Of this we have many interesting evidences. 
The butler of Pharaoh, in telling his dream to Joseph, says: 
"And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand: and I took the grapes 
and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup 
into Pharaoh's hand." The version of this passage by 
Josephus is : "He pressed the grapes into a goblet, and, 
having strained the sweet wine, he gave it to the king to 
drink." That this was a common usage is strikingly cor- 
roborated by a statue of Bacchus found at Pompeii. In this 



OF THE WORLD. 79 

interesting example of antique art the god of wine is figured 
as standing beside a pedestal, having in his hands a cluster 
of grapes, from which he is squeezing the juice into a cup 
which stands on the pedestal. 




The Bacchus Statue. 

Herodotus states that in his day the vine w T as not grown, 
in Egypt, but that wine was imported there from Greece. 
This statement, however, is probably an error, as wine had 
undoubtedly been common there for many centuries before 
that date. Beer made from barley was also in ordinary use. 
In the words of Hellanicus, ' ' Those who drank this beer 
were so pleased with it that they sung and danced, and did 
everything like men drunk with wine. ' * 



CHAPTER III. 



THE PLAGUE IN PALESTINE, GREECE, AND ROME. 



\\J^ next turn for testimonies to those nations which, by 
* * reason of their higher revelations, progress, and influ- 
ence in the world, should have been less susceptible to the 
malign seductions of strong drink. These were the nations 
that Moses redeemed, that Socrates taught, and Julius Caesar 
led to almost universal conquest. 

In regard to the nations of South-western Asia we know 
comparatively little concerning their drinking habits, except 
in the case of the Hebrews. The wines of Palestine were 
of unusual mildness, containing, when in their pure state, 
not more than eight per cent, of alcohol. Many of the pure 
wines of Southern Europe, indeed, contain little more, the 
exported wines of modern times being "rectified" by the 
addition of alcohol. 

The first mention of wine in the Bible is in the case of 
Noah, who, after the Deluge, ( ' began to be a husbandman, 
and he planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine and 
was drunken." This debasement of one who is held up to 
us as of great and noble character may have resulted, as sug- 
gested by Powell, through accidental fermentation of grape- 
juice set aside for a beverage, or through ignorance of its 
strength. As described in the Scriptures, it served as a 
salutary warning to the Hebrew nation, among whom we 
find that the use of wine or strong dr^nk was forbidden 
during religious ceremonies. 

Aaron and the priests received divine command to abstain 

80 



OF THE WORLD. 8 1 

from wine in the service of the tabernacle, and the prophets 
and priests of Palestine ever afterward did their utmost to 
restrain the people from intoxication. Throughout the pages 
of the Bible warnings against the use of strong drink are 
frequent, and many of them couched in the most vigorous 
and effective language. Nothing could paint in stronger 
and truer colors the evils of intoxication than the following 
striking and well-known passage from the book of Proverbs : 

' ' Who hath woe ? who hath sorrow ? who hath conten- 
tions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? 
who hath redness of eyes ? They that tarry long at the wine ; 
they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the 
wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, 
when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a 
serpent, and stingeth like an adder." 

The fact that the prohibitions against wine in the Scrip- 
tures refer principally to its use in excess has been made 
much of by the opponents of total abstinence as an argu- 
ment in their favor, and Christ's miracle of turning the water 
into wine is advanced as a proof that the Saviour approved 
its use in moderation. Yet this argument loses its strength 
when we remember the fact that the simple juice of the 
grape was a common beverage in that country, and that there 
is no evidence to show that this was not the character of the 
wine produced by Christ for the wedding-guests. The mild- 
ness of the pure wines of Palestine must also be taken into 
consideration. When used moderately they were compara- 
tively inoffensive, and the admonitions of the prophets are 
therefore mainly directed against the use of wine in excess 
or unnaturally strengthened by mixture with drugs. ' ' They 
that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine;" 
u Wine is a mocker; strong drink is raging." Numerous 
passages of this kind might be quoted to show that the 
objection of the prophets was mainly directed against excess 



82 THE WHITE ANGEL 

in the mild wines of their country and the use of artificially- 
strengthened drinks. Had the strong alcoholic liquors of 
modern times been then known, we should have found them 
speaking in trumpet tones in favor of absolute prohibition. 

It is remarkable, indeed, that the only ancient abstinence 
societies of which we have knowledge outside of the priest- 
hood were of Hebrew origin, and comprised no less than 
four such social groups. 

The most ancient of these was the sect of the Nazarites, 
instituted by the laws of Moses. The vow of a Nazarite 
declares that u he shall separate himself from wine and 
strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar 
of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, 
nor eat moist grapes or dried." 

This sect continued in existence throughout the history 
of the Hebrews as a nation, numbering among its members 
such celebrated examples as Samson, Samuel, Daniel, and 
John the Baptist. Of the physical aspect of the Nazarites, 
Jeremiah says they "were purer than snow, they were 
whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, 
their polishing was of sapphire. " It is to be regretted that 
the prophet did not depict the wine-drinker in the same scale 
of colors. 

The second of these total-abstinence sects, the Rechabites, 
was a pastoral tribe of Kenites, descended from Hobab, the 
brother-in-law of Moses. In the days of Ahab (900 b. c), a 
period of great dissoluteness of court and people, the head 
of this tribe, Jonadab the son of Rechab, in order to pre- 
serve his people from the general corruption enjoined upon 
them abstinence from strong drink. This injunction was 
kept with remarkable fidelity. More than two centuries after- 
ward the tribe was visited by Jeremiah, who, that he might 
present their admirable example as a warning to the Hebrews, 
set before them pots and cups of wine, and bade them to drink: 



OF THE WORLD. 8$ 

" But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son 
of Rechab our father commanded us saying, Ye shall drink 
no wine, neither ye nor your sons for ever. ' ' Jeremiah, in 
reward for this earnest adherence to duty, prophesied great 
honors to the Rechabites, promising that the tribe should 
' ' not want a man to stand before me (the Lord) for ever. ' ' 

The other total-abstinence sects referred to were the 
Essenes, a religious sect of the Hebrews during and before 
the time of Christ, of whom John the Baptist may have been 
a member; and the Therapeutse, a somewhat similar sect 
among the Hebrews of Egypt. 

If we give just weight to these various evidences, it must 
lead us to the conclusion that the Hebrews were not greatly 
given to drunkenness, except during the reigns of certain 
dissolute monarchs. All the influences of religion were 
arrayed against the vice, the wine was so mild that enormous 
quantities of it were needed to intoxicate, and there is reason 
to believe that the tendency of the people of that region of 
the earth, either from influences of race or of climate, is 
adverse to intemperate indulgence of the appetites. This 
being the case, we can the better understand the toleration 
of a moderate use of wine and the prohibition only of its 
use in excess. 

It was not for their use as wine, but for the evidence which 
they gave of the great fruitfulness of the soil, that the Israel- 
ites rejoiced over the great clusters of grapes which their 
messengers brought them from Palestine, that ' ' land flow- 
ing with milk and honey ' ' which God had promised should 
be their future home. 

GREECE. 

The custom of wine-drinking in Greece existed at least as 
long ago as the time of Homer, and perhaps much earlier. 
Yet the Greeks, like the nations to the east and south, were 



8 4 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



as a rule abstemious, and it is probable that intemperate in- 
dulgence of the appetites was not a general vice of the peo- 
ple. Homer refers in several passages to the use of wine, and 
indicates that at that early date it was mixed with drugs 




to increase its strength. Some of the substances thus em- 
ployed were powerful and dangerous, and it seems to have 
been a custom with the Eastern nations to mingle stupefying 
drugs in the wine given to criminals about to be executed. 
One of the Greek compounds was produced by mixing con- 
siderable quantities of sea-water with the newly-fermented 
wine. This was highly esteemed, as "it would cure many 
maladies. ' ' 

We are told by Plutarch that the Greeks, like the Persians, 
were accustomed to consider affairs of state when under the 



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85 



influence of wine. A similar custom existed among the 
ancient Germans, whose habit it was to debate the most 
important questions in their drunken carousals. Iyike the 
Persians, however, they were wise enough to take the coun- 
sel of ' ' sober second thought. " " On the following day the 




subject of the debate is again taken into consideration, and 
thus two different periods of time have their distinct uses; 
when warm they debate, when cool they decide." 

Though, as we have said, the Greeks as a rule were not 
given to excess in eating and drinking, yet there were not 
wanting examples of immoderate indulgence. Anacreon, 
the poet of love and wine, tells us in one of his convivial 



'Tis better to lie drunk than dead," 



S6 THE WHITE ANGEL 

and probably solved his own problem by taking the inter- 
mediate course of getting dead-drunk. The tradition is 
that he died at the age of seventy by being choked by a 
grape-stone while drinking new wine. 

That the effects of undue indulgence in the wine-cup were 
very familiar to the Greeks we have evidence in numerous 
poetical passages. Of these we quote a fragment preserved 
by Athenseus from the writings of Eubulus, one of the poets 
of the "Middle Comedy" of Greece: 

" Let them these parts of wine all duly season 
With nine of water, who'd preserve their reason. 
The first gives health, the second sweet desires, 
The third tranquillity and sleep inspires. 
These are the wholesome draughts which wise men please, 
Who from the banquet-house return in peace. 
From a fourth measure insolence proceeds : 
Uproar a fifth ; a sixth wild license breeds ; 
A seventh brings black eyes and livid bruises ; 
The eighth the constable introduces ; 
Black gall and hatred lurk the ninth beneath ; 
The tenth is madness, arms, and fearful death, 
For too much wine poured in one little vessel 
Trips up all those who seek with it to wrestle." 

Evidently drunkenness was no uncommon spectacle of 
those ancient days, and its effects were the same as it still 
produces — loss of reason, frantic dissipation, fierce enhance- 
ment of the passions, riot, outrage, murder, and all the ter- 
rible excesses to which this agent of madness stirs up the 
soul of man. 

The most frightful and abominable picture of ancient 
intemperance is that told of the worship of Bacchus, the 
Greek god of drunkards. The Bacchanalian ceremonies 
were at first conducted by women alone, who became roused 
to the most fanatical excitement, tearing animals limb from 
limb (and even men if they intruded on their frantic rites), 



OF THE WORLD. 87 

mating the raw flesh, and cutting their own bodies with sharp 
instruments. 

At a later date these nocturnal festivals were removed from 
the solitudes of the country to the cities, and men and women 
mingled indiscriminately in the wild orgies held in the tem- 
ples of Bacchus. Immoderate drinking was followed by the 
wildest excesses of immorality, in which modesty was laid 
aside and vice of every kind held full sway. These festi- 
vals led to poisonings, assassinations, and crimes of varied 
description, and the excesses grew so violent in the city of 
Rome that the senate of that city was obliged to forbid them 
under severe penalties. 

There is a Greek legend which connects the discovery of 
the vine with the god Bacchus of so curious a character that 
we here transcribe it from Tooke's Pantheon : 

u When Bacchus was a boy he journeyed through Hellas 
to go to Naxia; and, as the way was very long, he grew tired 
and sat down upon a stone to rest. As he sat there, with 
his eyes upon the ground, he saw a little plant spring up 
between his feet, and was so much pleased with it that he 
determined to take it with him and plant it in Naxia. He 
took it up and carried it away with him, but as the sun was 
very hot, he feared it might wither before he reached his 
destination. He found a bird's skeleton, into which he 
thrust it and went on. But in his hand the plant sprouted 
so fast that it started out of the bones above and below. 
This gave him fresh fear of its withering, and he cast about 
for a remedy. He found a lion's bone, which was thicker 
than the bird's skeleton, and he stuck the skeleton with the 
plant in it into the bone of the lion. Ere long, however, 
the plant grew out of the lion's bone likewise. Then he 
found the bone of an ass, larger still than that of the lion. 
So he put the lion's, containing the bird's skeleton and the 
plant, into the ass's bone, and thus he made his way to 



88 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



Naxia. When about to set the plant, he found that the 
roots had entwined themselves around the bird's skeleton 
and the lion's bone and the ass's bone, and as he could not 
take it out without damaging the roots, he planted it as it 
was; and it came up speedily and bore, to his great joy, the 
most delicious grapes, from which he made the first wine 




and gave it to men to drink. But behold a miracle ! When 
men drank of it they first sang like birds ; next, after drink- 
ing a little more, they became vigorous and gallant like 
lions; but when they drank still more they began to behave 
like asses." 

The Arabs have a somewhat similar legend, to the effect 
that the Devil watered the vine with the blood of four ani- 
mals; first with that of a peacock; when the vine began to 



OF THE WORLD. 89 

put forth leaves, with that of an ape; when the grapes began 
to appear, with that of a lion; and lastly, when they were 
quite ripe, with that of a hog. This is the reason, they say, 
that the wine-drinker at first struts about like a peacock; 
then begins to dance and grimace like an ape; then rages 
like a lion; and lastly lies down in a ditch like a hog. 

Of the examples of intemperate excess in ancient Greece 
the most notable is that of Alexander the Great, who, having 
conquered the world by his arms, was himself conquered by 
the wine-cup. Mad with drink, he murdered his friend 
Clitus, who, himself heated with wine, had ventured to tell 
him an unpalatable truth. Then, in drunken remorse, he 
denounced himself as unfit to live, and for three days re- 
fused to eat or drink. 

On another occasion, having invited a party of his friends 
and officers to supper, he proposed the reward of a crown 
for him who could drink the deepest. The prize was won 
by Promachus, who swallowed a quantity of wine equal to 
about ten quarts. He received the prize, and died three 
days afterward, a victim of excess. Of the remaining guests, 
forty died in consequence of their intemperate drinking. 

To those who uphold the innocence of wine, and lay on 
ardent spirits all the guilt of drunkenness, it would be well 
to ponder deeply these ancient stories. There can be no 
question but that the drinkers of old managed to obtain all 
the effects with wine that modern topers do with whiskey, 
and had no difficulty in producing murderous passion and 
committing involuntary suicide with this ' ' mild and inno- 
cent" beverage. 

This fact is well elucidated in the career of the conqueror 
Alexander, whose life ended in a mad and long-continued revel 
in the city of Babylon, in which he literally drank himself 
to death. Already full of wine, he was invited by his friend 
Medius to drink with him, and all night long the boon com- 



90 THE WHITE ANGEL 

panions indulged in boisterous revelry. Alexander slept off 
his intoxication the next day, but on the succeeding night 
the drunken orgy was repeated. According to Grote, he 
drank the health of each of the twenty guests at the table, 
and then pledged them severally. ' ' After this, calling for 
the cup of Hercules, which held six bottles, it was filled, 
when he drank it all down, drinking to Proteas by name, 
and afterward pledged him again in the same enormous 
bumper. He had no sooner swallowed it than he fell upon 
the floor." A violent fever ensued, which grew stronger 
day by day, until after a few days the conqueror of Asia 
died the death of a drunken sot. He was then only thirty- 
three years of age. 

It would be difficult to present a more flagrant example 
of the madness of intoxication than this. The greatest 
military commander of ancient, if not of all times, who 
had within a reign of less than thirteen years conquered the 
whole civilized world, and whose labors promised to be of 
the utmost benefit to mankind by extending the liberal and 
enlightened institutions of Greece throughout the despotic 
empires of the East, drowns his reason in the wine-cup, 
madly declares himself a god, kills his best friends in the 
frenzy of drunkenness, and finally murders himself with 
wine, while yet in the very prime of life, leaving the vast 
empire which he had formed to fall to pieces of its own 
weight in the hands of his incompetent successors, while 
the great good which he might have conferred upon man- 
kind perished in the insanity of a drunken carouse. 

"Here, then," says Seneca, in an eloquent appeal against 
intemperance, "is this hero, invincible by all the toils of 
prodigious marches, by the dangers of sieges and combats, 
by the most violent extremes of heat and cold, — here he lies, 
conquered by his intemperance, and struck to the earth by 
the fatal cup of Hercules." 



OF THE WORLD. 9 1 

How many of the great of the earth — the poets, legislators, 
generals, men of every degree and kind of celebrity — and 
what vast hosts of the unconsidered multitude, have fallen 
before that fatal cup since Alexander sacrificed his life to his 
appetites ! Its victims are still numbered by annual thousands, 
and we might, to use another metaphor, describe the wine-cup 
as a fiery sword fatally waving before the gates of the Paradise 
within whose precincts the drunken reveller seeks to intrude. 

ROME. 

It may be said, with no danger of contradiction from the 
-wise and noble of mankind, that there is no safety but in 
abstinence from the cup, and that misery and remorse are 
the predestined lot of those who steep their souls in the 
fatal quagmire of intoxication. The path to the drunkard's 
Paradise lies over the precipice of ruin and despair, and 
slender is the cord of hope and resolution by which alone 
he can reach again the solid soil of sober blessedness. 

The drunkenness of Rome seems to have far surpassed that 
of Greece, Egypt, or Palestine. Pliny, in his work on nat- 
ural history, devotes much attention to this subject, and 
describes a great variety of wines then in use. Of the prac- 
tice of brewing beer from grain, then somewhat common, 
he says: u The earth seemed to produce grain for the nourish- 
ment of men; but, by Hercules! how industrious is vice! We 
have found a method to make even water intoxicate us." 

Wine-making seems to have become a profitable industry, 
there being known "one hundred and ninety-five kinds of 
wine, which might be subdivided so as to make about twice 
as many. ' ' These wines, as we have said, were mild in nature, 
there being no alcohol to mingle with them as in modern 
times, while the addition of sugar in their manufacture to 
increase the percentage of alcohol, now commonly practised, 
was then unknown. Onlv from this mildness can we under- 



9 2 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



stand the extraordinary drinking-feats told of the Romans. 
The use of foreign substances of an intoxicating nature to 
give strength to wine was common. Pliny says, in relation 




The Precipice of Ruin. 



to this practice, ' ' As for the wine of Languedoc and the 
province of Narbon, I am not able to vouch anything for 



OF THE WORLD. 93 

certainty, such a brewing and sophistication of them they 
make by fuming, perfuming, and coloring them. Would 
that they did not put in herbs and drugs that are not good 
for man's body!" u As for the wine Mesogites, it is known 
to make the head ache. Neither is the wine of Ephesus 
healthful and wholesome, because it is sophisticated with a 
kind of cruit, half sodden." 

The younger Pliny draws a sickening picture of the wild 
excess in drink of the Romans of his time. We may quote 
somewhat at length from this striking statement. The evils 
of excess could not be more vividly and painfully portrayed : 

1 ' As though nature had not liberally bestowed water, with 
which all other animals are content, we even force our horses 
to drink w T ine; and we purchase, at great pains and expense, 
a liquor which deprives man of the use of his reason, renders 
him furious, and is the cause of an infinite number of crimes. 
Multitudes know no pleasure in life but that of drinking it. 
Yea, that we may drink the more, we weaken this liquor by 
passing it through a straining-bag, and we invent other 
methods to stimulate our thirst. We go so far as to employ 
poisons. Some persons, before drinking, make use of hem- 
lock, that the fear of death may compel them to drink. 
Others swallow powder of pumice-stone and many other 
things which I should blush to name. 

* ' The most prudent facilitate the digestion of various 
crudities by resorting to sweating-rooms, whence they are 
sometimes carried forth half dead. Some cannot even wait 
to reach their couch on the first quitting of the bath, but, 
naked and panting as they are. rush eagerly on great 
pitchers of wine, which they drain to the bottom, as if to 
exhibit the strength of their stomachs. They next vomit, 
and drink anew, renewing the like career once, twice, or 
three times, as though born only to waste wine 

" And now, what shall we say to the infamous representa- 



94 THE WHITE ANGEL 

tions upon the drinking-cups and vessels for wine, which 
would seem as though drunkenness alone were sufficient to 
excite men to lewdness? Thus they drink as if prostitution 
and drunkenness — ye gods! — were invited and even bribed 
with a reward. 

>j£ 5}C ?j» 5fJ 2jC 5jC 

' ' Among the I^atins, Marcellius Torqua,tus of Milan, who 
had been praetor and proconsul, has obtained the surname 
of Tricongius by drinking at one sitting three congii * of 
wine in the presence, and to the great astonishment, of the 
emperor Tiberius, who in his old age became severe and 
even cruel, but in his youth was much addicted to drink- 



' ' Tergilla reproached Marcus Tullius Cicero that he drank 
two congii at a single draught, and that one day, being 
intoxicated, he had thrown a glass at the head of Marcus 
Agrippa. Truly these are the works of drunkenness. But 
doubtless Cicero, the son, wished to take from Mark Antony, 
the murderer of his father, the palm of drunkenness; for 
it is well known that, before him, Antony had been very 
jealous of the title of a first-rate drinker, and even published 
a treatise on his drunkenness, in which he dared to apologize 
for that vice. ' ' 

The dissipation here described is matched by the accounts 
of other authors. Athenaeus describes a Roman feast which 
ended in an orgy of the most debased character. The slaves 
were compelled to drink as much wine as their masters, so 
as to be at no advantage over them, and the feast ended in 
general riot and intoxication, in which host, guests, men, 
women, and slaves participated. 

The Saturnalia, or annual festival in the worship of Saturn, 
was an occasion that more than matched the Bacchanalian 
orgies of the Greeks. Its original limit of one day was 

* Three gallons one quart and one pint. 



OF THE WORLD. 95 

extended to three, and finally to seven, and all classes, not 
excepting the slaves, indulged in the debauchery and folly 
of intoxication. Wine was provided at public expense, 
and, in the words of Tacitus, "the whole city seemed to. 
be inflamed with frantic rage and at the same time intoxi- 
cated with drunken pleasures." Even on the battle-field, 
amid the unburied dead, this wild orgy w T as continued for 
three days. 

Nothing that we can say could add anything to the effect- 
iveness of this picture of dissipation. The most shameful 
excesses of modern times seem to have been paralleled in an- 
cient Rome, particularly when we find such a man as Cicero- 
fuddling his reason with enormous draughts of wine. And it 
may be further said that the drunkenness of the men of Rome 
was emulated by that of the women. During the period of 
Republican Rome a strict law forbade women to taste of 
wine, and this prohibition in time became a sort of religious, 
interdict, so that its violation was considered a monstrous 
crime. Under the Empire, however, the law became a dead 
letter and all moral restriction vanished. The ladies of 
highest rank in Rome boldly vied with their husbands in. 
dissipation, and, according to Seneca, spent whole nights- 
at the table, proud of their ability as topers. In every 
ancient nation, indeed, the period of greatest power seems 
to have quickly become a period of luxury, gluttony, 
drunkenness, and vice of every description. And it may 
serve as a salutary lesson to modern communities that the- 
decay and downfall of all these nations began in such a loss, 
of public and private virtue, and that excessive indulgence 
in luxury and intoxication has always been the first stage 
on the "road to ruin." 

TOTAL ABSTINENCE IN THE PAST. 

The wise and virtuous men of ancient times did not fail 



g6 THE WHITE ANGEL 

to perceive the ruinous effects of intoxication. They ab- 
stained from the wine-cup themselves, and used all their 
influence against intemperate indulgence. The Bible is full 
of passages in which the evils of intemperance are vividly 
depicted, while throughout Asia numerous efforts to repress 
the vice were made. In the words of a learned writer, 
"Without contradiction, in every age of the world there 

has been a total-abstinence movement The religion 

and laws of the nations of every part of Asia bear traces of 
enlightened efforts to check the vice of intemperance, and 
to this day there are numerous tribes who, by religious pro- 
fession, are total abstainers." 

Several instances of this prohibitory movement have been 
mentioned in the foregoing pages — the active measures taken 
and severe penalties imposed by the emperors of China; 
the prohibition against intemperance in the ' ' Laws of 
Manu;" the abstinence injunctions of the Buddhistic relig- 
ion; the temperance enjoined upon the Egyptian priests; 
the requirement of priestly temperance in the Mosaic code; 
and the societies of total abstainers in the Hebrew nation. 
Many of the leading men of the Scriptures are expressly 
commended for their strict temperance, and in the history 
of the surrounding nations prominent instances of abstinence 
are on record. A highly interesting story is told by Xeno- 
phon of Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire. While 
but a boy he journeyed from Persia to Media on a visit to 
his grandfather, Astyages, king of that country. The king 
having spoken of the fact that his young guest had taken 
an aversion to his cupbearer on account of his office, Cyrus 
himself proposed to act as cupbearer. This office he filled 
with much grace, but failed, before offering the wine, to 
pour some of it into his left hand and taste it, as was the 
custom. The king noticed this, and manifested surprise at 
the omission. 



OF THE WORLD. gj 



' ' You have omitted one essential ceremony, ' ' said he — 
"-that of tasting." 

{ ' It was not from forgetting, ' ' replied Cyrus, ' c that I 
omitted that ceremony." 

" For what, then?" asked Astyages. 

"Because," said Cyrus, "I thought there was poison in 
the cup." 

u Poison, child!" cried the king. " How could you think 
so?" 

"Yes, poison, grandfather; for not long ago at a banquet 
which you gave to your courtiers, after the guests had drunk 
a little of that liquor I noticed that all their heads were 
turned; they sang, shouted, and talked they did not know 
what, and even you yourself seemed to forget that you were 
king and they were subjects; and when you would have 
danced, you could not stand on your legs." 

' c Why, ' ' asked Astyages, ' ' have you never seen the same 
happen to your father V ' 

"No, never," said Cyrus. 

The sequel to this interesting though probably fictitious 
story is not all that we could wish it. In later life Cyrus 
himself became a wine-drinker. He may never have drunk 
to excess, but with him began those habits which made 
drunkards of the Persians, and which finally brought on 
the downfall of the great kingdom he had founded. 

In Greece the strictest temperance was required of the 
celebrated Athenian council of Areopagus. Death was the 
penalty prescribed for any member of this council who was 
found drunk. It was clearly perceived at that early day that 
justice and wisdom were incompatible with drunkenness. The 
laws of Draco and of Solon were also very severe on drunk- 
ards, and at one time it was considered infamous to be seen 
in a public-house. The Spartans were particularly noted 
for their abstemious habits. The laws of Lycurgus strictly 



98 THE WHITE ANGEL 

prohibited drinking under severe penalties, and, according 
to Plato, intemperance ceased to exist in that ancient realm. 
The youth were educated to the strictest abstinence, and 
that they might be made to abhor the disgusting effects of 
drunkenness the Helots, or slaves, were exhibited before 
them in a state of intoxication. The history of Sparta 
strikingly illustrates the advantages of temperance. This 
small nation has become justly celebrated as a remarkable 
example of manly beauty and strength, warlike energy and 
courage, wisdom in council and intrepidity in action. It 
was not the valor of the wine-cup that made the Spartans 
so terrible in war, but the courage, skill, and vigor derived 
from steady nerves, clear brains, and sober faculties. 

There are other Grecian examples of prohibitory law. A 
law of the Locrians punished with death any man who 
should drink wine unless it were prescribed by a physician 
as medicine. Lycurgus, a king of Thrace, took the Chinese 
method of rooting up all the vines in his kingdom, while 
he forbade the importation of wine under severe penalties. 
A law of Mytilene punished the drunkard both for the crimes 
that he committed and for the intoxication that produced 
them. In early Rome temperance was strongly prescribed, 
drunkenness was severely punished, and the Senate was 
purged of all drunken members, who were regarded as in- 
famous. Wine at this period appears to have been scarce 
and dear, and temperance was in a measure necessary. Pliny 
states that at the date of 650 b. c. women were forbidden to 
drink wine under penalty of death. He cites one instance 
of a woman who was killed by her husband for drinking 
wine, and another in which a Roman lady was starved to 
death by her family for having in her possession the keys of 
the wine-cellar. It was the usage for women to be com- 
pelled to salute all their male relatives with a kiss, that it 
might be ascertained if their breath smelt of wine. Whether 



OF THE WORLD. 99 

this was the origin of the custom of kissing or not, he does 
not say. 

Many of the leading philosophers of Greece and Rome 
were illustrious examples of abstinence, such as Pythagoras, 
Socrates, Diogenes, Seneca, and even Epicurus, whose name 
has become a synonym for indulgence. 

The story of all these great empires of the past is the 
same — first temperance, often accompanied by prohibitive 
edicts; then an era of unlimited dissipation, ending event- 
ually in the decline and fall of the nation. Whether the 
rule be applied to men or nations, it is evident that strength, 
virtue, and honor are the native attendants upon temper- 
ance; vice, dishonor, decay, and ruin are the inevitable con- 
sequences of drunkenness. 

We need adduce but one more instance of ancient total 
abstinence, but it is one that has had an important effect 
upon the temperance of the modern world. Mohammed, in 
the Koran, strictly condemned the use of wine. This was 
not a severe restriction to the inhabitants of the Arabian 
desert, who are by nature abstemious in food and drink. 
But when Mohammedanism spread widely over the civilized 
world, the abstinence of its adherents became a powerful 
moral force, and very probably had much to do with the ex- 
traordinary rapidity of the Moslem conquest. The influence 
of this prohibition has to a certain extent lost its force upon 
the Mohammedans, and is evaded in part by the substitution 
of other liquors for wine. Yet there can be no doubt that 
its moral force upon those of religious inclination is still 
strong, and that the prohibitory teachings of Buddhism and 
Mohammedanism have done much to promote the cause of 
temperance in Asia and Africa and in Mohammedan Europe. 



HT- "ft %I A 



1 ^ 'jjr^ 



CHAPTER IV. 

BEER-BESETTING TEUTONS AND BRITONS. 

* I ^HE history of intemperance in Northern and Western 
-*- Europe, in the later days of the Roman empire and 
throughout mediaeval and modern times, is one of striking 
significance. Greatly as the vice was developed in the past, 
the excesses of the ancient world have been surpassed by 
those of modern topers, partly through the greater potency 
of the liquors consumed, and partly, as some hold, through 
a stronger native inclination to intemperate indulgence. 

The wines of the past have been replaced by the brain- 
maddening brandies, gins, and whiskeys of the present, and 




the story of intoxication has grown more frightful with the 
passing of the years, rather than diminished with the advance 
of civilization. Alike in the fiery draughts swallowed by 



OF THE WORLD. IOI 

the besotted drunkard, and the enticing beverage of the 
punch -bowl and other concealed forms of the enemy in- 
dulged in openly or secretly by the respectable classes of 
society, the work of ruin still goes on, and the demon of 
drink annually demands its hostages of human life and 
happiness. 

The Teutonic race is looked upon by authors generally as 
the intemperate race par excellence. In the words of one 
writer, ' ' Wherever the Teuton is, there drunkenness pre- 
vails." Tacitus speaks in strong terms of the orgies of 
the ancient Germans, who, in the depths of their cold 
forests, drank to immoderate excess, while quarrels, ending 
in murder, were no infrequent accompaniments of their 
riotous dissipation. It has been said that intoxication is 
u a vice of the chilly North;" and certainly excesses in 
eating and drinking are more prevalent there than among 
the inhabitants of warmer regions, who seem by nature 
abstemious, and their drunkenness an unnatural vice. The 
body of the man of the higher latitudes demands more food 
as a requirement of his frigid climate, and his sluggish tem- 
perament may be natively better adapted to stimulants than 
are the hot blood and passionate disposition of the fiery South. 
To the dampness of the German climate is also attributed 
much of the national love for drink. 

It is in this region of the North that we first find beer — 
which in the South but slightly divided with wine the honors 
of the bacchanalian festival — assuming the position of a 
national drink, which it has ever since maintained. Beer 
and ale, made from wheat or barley, with mead or metheg- 
lin, produced from honey, were the favorite beverages of all 
the Teutonic tribes, to whom wine was scarcely known, ex- 
cept in the case of those who dwelt upon the Rhine in close 
contiguity to the Southern nations. 

In German legend the discovery of the art of making beer 



102 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



is ascribed to Gambrinus, a fabulous king of Brabant, who 
has ever since been the canonized saint of the brewers. The 
use of hops in beer-making seems to have begun about the 
eighth century, a decoction of oak bark having been em- 
ployed previously. Vineyards were planted in Germany at 




The Modern Gambkinus. 



an early period, yet for ages beer and mead continued the 
national drinks, and the only heaven which had any attrac- 
tion for the ancient German was one in which these bev- 
erages flowed unceasingly. In Teutonic mythology the gods 
were as profuse topers as those of Vedic India. 

During the mediaeval period a very carnival of beer-drink- 
ing reigned throughout Germany. Both sexes freely in- 
dulged, and intoxication prevailed among all classes, kings 



OF THE WORLD. 103 

and subjects, young and old, alike drinking to excess. The 
clergy are said to have indulged as freely as the laity. A 
law dating from the sixth century requires every person 
belonging to a " house of God ' ' to deliver to the same 
fifteen seidels (about fifteen gallons) of beer per annum. In 
the tenth century each monk of the monastery of St. Gall 
had a daily allowance of five measures of beer, with an 
occasional allowance of wine. There were penalties, indeed, 
against over-indulgence on the part of priests, but not very 
severe ones, while during certain church festivals the monk 
was free to drink at will. 

The stories told of German beer-drinking yield evidence 
of the grossest indulgence in the pleasures of the appetite. 
Drinking-tournaments were held, in one of which Hans 
Sachs records that twelve ' ' beer heroes ' ' drank from pots 
and cans a tun of beer in six hours. The duke of Rohan, 
at a much later date, advised the mathematicians who were 
puzzling their brains to discover perpetual motion to seek 
for it in the beer-mugs of the city of Trent, which, as he 
said, travelled in a perpetual round that knew no ending. 

The goblet became a necessary, almost a sacred, element 
in all German ceremonies — at weddings and funerals, at 
games and tournaments, at the closing of contracts, which 
was done over a goblet, and in almost every occasion of life, 
until, in the words of a traveller, " living here is naught but 
drinking." 

A drinking code existed of a somewhat extraordinary 
character. It permitted young ladies ' ' to drink platonically 
with virtuous young men," but warned them in not very 
modest terms against certain perils of excess. Drinking of 
toasts was common, in which young men and young ladies 
might imbibe from the same goblet. Penalties were inflicted 
for sneezing or coughing into the goblets, and for certain 
other offences against decency and propriety which were 



104 THE WHITE ANGEL 

probably of common occurrence. On the arrival of new- 
comers the goblet was offered, and to refuse to drink was 
a mortal offence which often led to bloodshed. 

A further provision of the code required that riotous 
drinkers should be quietly admonished, but if they persisted 
they should be well thrashed and sent home ' ' as cheaply as 
possible." Breaking of tables and windows was severely 
punished, "and certain acts of indency, if practised before 
ladies, were to be resented by seizing the offender and pitch- 
ing him neck-and-crop into the streets." The above is 
quoted from Samuelson's History of Drink, which relates an 
instance in which a hundred and ten persons drank four tuns 
of beer and one and a half olms of wine at a sitting. 

The profession of brewer naturally became a very import- 
ant one, and more than one beer-maker played his part in 
history. Chief among these was Jacob von Artavelde, a 
brewer -of Ghent, who roused the people to a revolt against 
the count of Flanders, and drove him out of the country. 
In a war that ensued between France and England this 
notable brewer assisted the English king with an army of 
60,000 men. Not less renowned in Belgian history was his 
son, Philip von Artavelde. 

Almost incredible stories are told of the customs and 
scenes to which the beer-carousals of Germany gave rise. 
All classes, high and low alike, indulged to excess, and at 
the height of the custom a faulbett, or sot's couch, occupied 
a corner of every dining-room for the benefit of the first pair 
of guests who were overcome by their potations. 

In German inns they who became drunk first were best 
off, for the beds were allotted to them, while those of stronger 
head, whether rich or poor, lodged with the cows among the 
straw. In Saxony and Bohemia, at this period, such fright- 
ful excesses prevailed that murder over the mug was of fre- 
quent occurrence. Deadly brawls arose in taverns, on the 



OF THE WORLD. 105 

streets, and in the family circle, so that the saying arose 
that it was better for a man to fall into the thick of his 
enemies when fighting than among his friends when 
drinking. 

Apropos of this may be quoted from Dr. Doran's Table 
Traits the following scarcely conceivable story: 

u It is on record that once, on the banks of the Bohemian 
Sazawa, a party of husbandmen met for the purpose of drink- 
ing twelve casks of wine. There were ten of them who ad- 
dressed themselves to this feast; but, one of the ten attempt- 
ing to retire from the contest before any of his fellows, the 
remaining nine seized, bound him, and roasted him alive on 
a spit. The murderers were subsequently carried to the palace 
for judgment; but the duke's funeral was taking place as 
they entered the hall, and the princes who administered 
justice were all so intoxicated that they looked upon the 
matter in the light of a joke that might be compensated 
for by a slight fine." 

Only the vice of drunkenness could make men capable 
of such a deed and such a judgment. Frightful must have 
been the state of society where such things could occur. 

The extraordinary reign of drunkenness which thus pre- 
vailed throughout Germany from Roman days down to the 
verge of the present century met with some, though no 
effective, efforts to check its excesses. Charlemagne, who 
was of temperate habits, issued edicts which forbade any 
one from appearing at court intoxicated, required earls to 
be perfectly sober when sitting in judgment, and prohibited 
priests from offering drink to penitents. A soldier found 
drunk was sentenced to drink only water until he was ready 
to confess guilt and publicly implore forgiveness — certainly 
not a very severe penalty. Edicts similar in purpose were 
issued again and again by later monarchs, but with little 
or no effect. In 1495, Frederick III. ordered all "electors, 



Io6 THE WHITE ANGEL 

princes, prelates, counts, knights, and gentlemen to dis- 
countenance and severely punish drunkenness." Karl IV., 
at a subsequent date, declared that intoxication was increas- 
ing, that blasphemy and murder were among its results, and 
that these vices had rendered the Germans, "whose manli- 
ness was so famous in earlier times, despised of all foreign 
nations. ' ' 

Luther, who loved his people and suffered much for their 
sake, denounced ' ' the inventor of beer ' ' as the greatest de- 
spoiler of the German people. Successive reformers have 
deplored the bane of beer-drinking and declared it the worst 
foe of true piety among the adults of Germany. Emperor 
Wilhelm I. often urged his ministers to devise measures for 
the betterment of the habits of the masses in the matter of 
beer-drinking, but the ministers were more concerned with 
gratifying the depraved appetites of the people, and there- 
from gathering those revenues which they delighted to accu- 
mulate and spend in the exploitation of their pet schemes. 
The revenues derived by the German government are enor- 
mous and, compared with American license fees, make the 
latter look ridicuously small. At a very recent date Prince 
Bismarck bitterly denounced the reckless and riotous mania 
for beer among the people of the great empire he had done 
so much to create, and declared it ' ' stupefying and brutaliz- 
ing to the nation." Notwithstanding, he is himself owner 
of a brewery and profiting by his people's shame. 

Temperance societies of varied character were instituted, 
some of them by emperors and high dignitaries of the Church. 
Among the penalties for drunkenness gentlemen were fined 
1 ' five shillings and costs, ' ' serfs were occasionally impris- 
oned for three days and nights, and very persistent drunk- 
ards received fourteen days' imprisonment. There is no 
reason to believe, however, that any of these measures 
mitigated the evil. 



OF THE WORLD. 107 

The only palliation for these excesses of the Germans, who 
for so long a period ' ' led the van of drunkards, ' ' is the 
character of their climate and the essentially barbarous con- 
ditions of society in the Middle Ages. Civilization has done 
its share in mitigating such gross indulgence of the appe- 
tites, and immoderate drinking in Germany now is confined 
to a minority of the population, though enormous quantities 
of beer are still consumed, while the consumption of wine 
and the stronger liquors is steadily on the increase. 

OTHER TEUTONIC NATIONS. 

The story we have told of the Germans applies with little 
variation to the Teutons wherever found. The Anglo-Saxons, 
before their invasion of England, were noted for their ' l ale- 
feasts," in which, to quote from the historian Green, "queen 
■or earl's wife, with a train of maidens, bore ale-bowl or 
mead-bowl round the hall, from the high settle of king or 
ealderman in the midst to the mead-benches ranged round 
its walls, while the gleeman sang the hero-songs of his 
xace. ' ' 

Equally doughty " beer-heroes " were the Danes, whose 
wild and adventurous life was rounded out with a carnival 
of drunkenness. Their religious ceremonies were concluded 
with drunken carousals, in which they filled themselves 
with huge draughts of ale in honor of the gods. Death in 
battle had little terror for these ' ( Berserkers, ' ' whose heaven 
flowed with perpetual ale. On their conversion to Chris- 
tianity, the clergy, finding it not easy to break up this cus- 
tom, substituted the names of the saints for those of the 
heathen gods, and permitted their converts to drink the 
health of the saints and of the Holy Virgin without stint. 

The Teutons of Sweden were no less given to intoxica- 
tion, and consumed ale in quantities not surpassed by the 
early Germans. Intemperance there led to the vices and 



I08 THE WHITE ANGEL 

crimes which have attended its history in all parts of the 
world. Afraelius, the historian, tells us that ' ' dangerous 
rivals were treacherously got rid of by supplying them with 
liquors till they were reduced to insensibility, when the hall, 
usually a wooden edifice, in which they were entertained was 
set on fire or they were otherwise slaughtered. Wilful self- 
destruction was perpetrated by first getting drunk and then 
committing suicide. ' ' Suicide, it may be said, is still often 
perpetrated in much the same way by senseless topers simply 
drinking themselves to death. The poison in the cup relieves 
them of the necessity of using the knife or the rope. 

At a later period ' ' guilds ' ' of drunkards were founded, 
each dedicated to some saint, in whose honor the members got 
royally drunk, that saint being deemed most honored whose 
votaries reduced themselves to the greatest degree of beast- 
liness. 

The. sketch we have here given of the extravagant indul- 
gence in strong drink of the Teutons of Europe presents but 
the historical side of the picture. There is a background of 
crime and brutality, outrage and suffering, frantic indulgence 
of the passions, disease, murder, and insanity, too terrible to 
be drawn in its native hues. Those who know the despicable 
results of intoxication in these days of civilized moderation 
can readily judge for themselves of the condition of a society 
of semi-barbarians where all classes — men, women, and chil- 
dren — habitually drank to intoxication, and where the land 
was full of the grossness, sensuality, and unmitigated bru- 
tality of drunkenness. That the world may be for ever free 
from a relapse to such a state should be the earnest prayer 
of all who desire the future good of mankind. 

RUSSIA. 

This great empire presents us an example of a nation in 
which the government does its best to make drunkenness a 



OF THE WORLD. IO9 

national institution. The excise on drink is there a matter 
of so much more importance than the virtue of sobriety that 
the peasantry are not only coaxed, but even forced, to drink. 
More than one-third the revenue comes from liquor. The 
tax on intoxicating beverages was formerly farmed out by 
the government at a large annual sum, with the following 
results, as stated in 1854: "In the central provinces the 
farmer of the duty on spirits buys the assistance of the local 
authorities, and between them it is arranged that all busi- 
ness shall be carried on at the public-house, glass in hand. ' ' 
In the other provinces the farmer of the duty forced each 
commune to buy a certain quantity of liquor or obliged the 
peasants to pay a certain sum for permission to buy spirits 
elsewhere. He threatened, if they refused, to charge them 
with a breach of the revenue laws, and they knew only too 
well that accusation in that autocratic country is nearly 
equivalent to condemnation. 

It is not surprising that ' ' the temperance societies have 
never been able to take root in Russia." A writer in the 
Pall- Mall Gazette says that in 1859 some of the peasants, 
being charged exorbitantly for their vodki, or corn-brandy, 
by the farmers of the revenue, "banded themselves into 
temperance societies with a view to forcing down the prices. 
Hereupon the farmers complained to government, and the 
teetotal leagues were dissolved as illegal secret societies, and 
summary measures were taken toward forcing the people to 
contribute to the revenue by their intemperance. Police- 
men and soldiers were sent into the disaffected districts, and 
the teetotalers were flogged into drinking; some who dog- 
gedly held out had liquor poured into their mouths through 
funnels, and were afterward hauled off to prison as rebels; 
at the same time, the clergy were ordered to preach in their 
churches against the new form of sedition, and the press- 
censorship thenceforth laid its veto against all publications 



IIO THE WHITE ANGEL 

in which the immorality of the liquor traffic was denounced. 
In 1865 the people fancied that because they were no longer 
serfs they could not be treated so unceremoniously as of yore,, 
but they found out their mistake. They were simply dealt 
with as insurgents, and, though not beaten, were fined, bul- 
lied, and preached at till there was no spirit of resistance 
left in them. However, this new rising led to the abolition 
of the monopolies. An excise was substituted, the price of 
vodki fell by competition, and the lower orders of Russia are 
now drunker than ever." 

It is not surprising that secret societies of Nihilists and 
other conspirators are organized against such a form of 
"paternal government. ' ' Those of our citizens who deem 
it so oppressive to be forced not to drink would doubtless 
find it far more so if they were forced to drink, as in the 
unhappy land of the Muscovite. 

EARLY ENGLAND. 

The Teutonic conquerors of Britain were not less addicted 
to the ale-bowl than their continental kindred. The Britons 
of Roman times used beer and mead as beverages, but they 
were moderate drinkers as compared with the Saxon invaders, 
of whom Malmesbury says that ' ' excessive drinking was one 
of the commonest vices of all classes of people, in which 
they spent whole days and nights without intermission." 
Though wine was occasionally used, ale and mead were the 
principal drinks, the latter made from the honey which was 
plentifully produced. 

To quote from Thorpe: "The Anglo-Saxon notions of 
hospitality were inimical to sobriety. It was the duty of 
the host to offer liquors to every guest, and if possible to 
induce him to drink to intoxication. The kings and nobles 
on their journeys stopped to drink at every man's house, 
and indulged until they were incapable of taking care of 



OF THE WORLD. Ill 

themselves. ' ' It became necessary, indeed, to adopt special 
measures to protect drinkers from danger of assassination, 
which was a matter of frequent occurrence in those semi- 
savage days. The large cans from which beer was then 
swilled, rather than drank, were so heavy that it was neces- 
sary to lift them with both hands. Thus the drinker was at 
the mercy of his foe, and murder over the can became so 
common that a custom of ''pledging" arose. A man about 
to drink asked a neighbor to be his pledge, who, if consent- 
ing, rose, drew his sword, and protected him while drink- 
ing, the compliment being returned in kind. 

A state of society such as this it is somewhat difficult in 
these days of law and order to understand. The Anglo- 
Saxon feasts were riotous occasions, in w T hich drunkenness 
often led to its natural accompaniment of bloodshed. Among 
the delicate practical jokes of the period were such as throw- 
ing a rat or a weasel into the circulating can, or dashing its 
contents over the head or into the face of some member of 
the company. Severe laws had finally to be passed against 
such "jokes," from the dangerous quarrels to which they 
gave rise. 

The clergy are said to have been as fond of the ale-can 
as their flock, and their excesses became so scandalous that 
efforts were made by the archbishops of York and Canter- 
bury to somewhat mitigate the prevailing intoxication. The 
edicts of these dignitaries show the shamelessness of the evil 
more clearly than any mere description can do: "A bishop 
who was drunk to vomiting while administering the holy 

sacrament was condemned to fast ninety days All 

bishops who were constantly and deliberately drunk were 
deposed from their office." 

Where the habits of bishops gave occasion for such edicts 
those of the inferior clergy and of the laity must have been 
unmentionable. The latter were more mildly dealt with, 



1 1 2 THE WHITE ANGEL 

and at Christmas and Easter drunkenness seems to have 
been considered an act of piety. "If any one," says 
Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, "in joy and glory 
of our Saviour's natal day, or Easter, or in honor of any 
saint, become drunk to vomiting, and in so doing has taken 
no more than he was ordered by his elders, it matters noth- 
ing. If a bishop commanded him to be drunk, it is inno- 
cent, tmless indeed the bishop were in the same state him- 
self:' 

Wickliffe says of the clergy in the middle of the four- 
teenth century, ' ' that they haunt taverns out of measure, 
and stir up laymen to drunkenness, idleness, and cursed 

swearing, chiding, and fighting They resort to 

plays at tables, chess, and hazard, and roar in the streets, 
and sit at the taverns till they have lost their wits, and then 
chide and strive and fight sometimes. And sometimes they 
have neither eye, nor tongue, nor hand, nor foot to help 
themselves for drunkenness. By this example the ignorant 
people suppose that drunkenness is no sin; but he that 
wasteth most of poor men's goods at taverns, making him- 
self and other men drunken, is most praised for nobleness, 
courtesy, freeness, and worthiness." 

If such were the habits of the clergy, what words can 
describe those of the common people ? Wright, in his Do- 
mestic Manners and Sentiments, tells this curious story of 
the customs of a century or more later: 

' ' The tavern was also the resort of women of the middle 
or lower orders, who assembled there to drink and gossip. 
In the Mysteries, or religious plays, Noah is represented as 
finding his wife drinking with her gossips at the tavern when 
he wanted to take her into the ark. The meetings of gossips 
in taverns form the subjects of many of the popular songs 
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, both in England 
and France. It appears that these meetings of gossips in 



OF THE WORLD. 1 1 3 

taverns were the first examples of what we now call a pic- 
nic, for each woman took with her some provisions, and with 
these the whole party made a feast in common. 

" One of the songs of the fifteenth century gives a pic- 
turesque description of one of these gossip-meetings. The 
women having met accidentally, the question is put where 
the best wine was to be had, and one of them replies that she 
knows where could be procured the best drink in the town, 
but that she did not want her husband to be acquainted 
with it. 

' I know a draught of merty-go-downe, 
The best it is in all this towne ; 
But yet wold I not, for my gowne, 
My husband it wist, ye may me trust.' 

" The place of meeting having thus been fixed, they are 
represented as proceeding thither two and two, not to attract 
observation, lest their husbands might hear of their meeting. 
' God might send me a stripe or two, ' said one, ' if my hus- 
band should see me here. ' * Nay, ' said Alice, another, ' she 
that is afraid had better go home; I dread no man.' Each 
was to carry with her some goose, or pork, or the wing of a 
capon, or a pigeon pie, or some similar article, 

' And ech off them whyll sumwhat bryng, 
Gosse, pygee, or capon's wyng, 
Pasties off pigeons or sum other thyng.' " 

And on went the feast, with eating, drinking, and gossip- 
ing, ending with paying the shot to the host, and going 
home by different streets to tell their husbands that they 
had been at church. 

DISTILLED SPIRITS. 

The drinking habits of the world with which we have 
hitherto dealt relate solely to the use of fermented liquors, 
the strange admixtures of the more ancient nations, the 
mixed and strengthened drinks of Hebrew history, the 



1 1 4 THE WHITE ANGEL 

wines of the south and the beer and mead of the north 
of Europe. In the period yet before us a far more potent 
intoxicant was to come into vogue, and the means of con- 
verting men into beasts to be frightfully augmented. The 
huge and repeated potations necessary to drunkenness in 
those habituated to the milder beverages of the past were 
destined to be replaced by far readier means of intoxication 
through the imbibing of the throat-scorching and brain-mad- 
dening ' ' ardent spirits ' ' of recent centuries. 

It is not known when the art of distilling alcoholic liquors 
was first attained. It seems to have originated in the Bast, 
where, as is asserted by a writer in the Encyclopedia 
Britannica, a rude kind of still has been in use in Ceylon 
from a very remote epoch. It may have been equally an- 
cient in China, though we have no evidence that it was in 
use there until after the tenth century A. D. The word 
' ' alcohol " is of Arabian origin, and indicates that the 
Arabs may have learned this art in the East, whence they 
brought so much of more useful knowledge. 

The discovery in Europe of this most perilous of the arts 
has been popularly ascribed to Arnoldus de Villa Nova, a 
thirteenth-century physician, but it is believed that this 
person simply brought an older discovery to public notice 
by introducing alcohol as a medicine, and one, as it was 
then claimed and believed, of the most potent and marvel- 
lous efficacy. 

During several centuries this mischievous aquce vitcz, 
"water of life" — or draught of death, as it might have been 
more fitly called — was looked upon as of almost miraculous 
medicinal virtue, but it came into common use as a beverage 
only during the sixteenth century. The first statement we 
have of its use otherwise than as a curative agent is to the 
effect that it was employed in the mines of Hungary as a 
protective against the effects of cold and moisture. In 1581 



OF THE WORLD. 1 1 5 

the English soldiers in Holland learned to use distilled spirits 
as a cordial against the damps of that soaking climate, and 
brought the dangerous habit of spirit-drinking to England, 
where for the time it seems to have redoubled the epidemic 
of drunkenness. 

In Ireland this potent liquor is believed to have been in 
use much earlier than in England, being adopted by the 
Celts more readily than by their Teutonic neighbors. While 
beer continues to this day the national drink in the Teutonic 
kingdoms of England and Germany, it seems never to have 
been suited to the tastes of the Celts, wine having always 
been the national beverage of France, while whiskey has 
become associated with the name of Ireland, and to little less 
extent with that of Scotland. As early as 1584 the mayor 
and corporation of Galway were advised to take measures to 
restrict the distilling of liquor from corn, it being said, with 
a truth that has been rendered more evident with every year 
of the reign of whiskey, that u aqua vitce that is sold in 
towns ought rather to be called aqua mortis, to poison the 
people, rather than to comfort them in any good sorte." 
The evil soon became so great that an act was passed for- 
bidding any but licensed persons to distil liquor; not, how- 
ever, with the purpose of diminishing drunkenness, but in 
order to check the excessive waste of corn through its con- 
version into whiskey. 

In Cromwell's days the north of England magistrates pun- 
ished drunkards by sentencing them to wear the "drunk- 
ard's cloak." A large barrel, with one head out and a hole 
through the other, was thrust over the offender, his head 
appearing through the hole and his arms drawn through 
two smaller openings in the sides. Thus accoutred, he was 
marched along the streets and exposed to public derision. 

In Scotland the drunkenness of the gentry at that period, 
and long afterward, attained extravagant proportions. No 



1 1 6 THE WHITE ANGEL 

man was considered fit for respectable society who refused to 
take part in the prevailing orgies, in which it was usual for 
the host to lock the door and forbid egress to his guests 
except through the gateway of intoxication. A similar 
custom was not unusual half a century ago in the United 
States. 

As late as the time of Sir Walter Scott, as he tells us in 
his Lord of the Isles, it was required in large convivial meet- 
ings of the most respectable Caledonians that the liquor cask 
should be emptied before the company dispersed. Two men 
stood at the door with a barrow, ready to carry the guests 
to their beds as fast as they drank themselves into help- 
less brutes. The gentry of Ireland closely paralleled these 
worthy examples. As for the common people of both coun- 
tries during that period, their name has become a synonym 
for whiskey-drinking. 

This fiery beverage, indeed, has been the bane of Ireland, 
and has played a prominent part in reducing that green 




The Bane of Ireland. 



island to the state of misery and destitution under which it 
has so long groaned. There can be no hope for the pros- 
perity of any land the peasantry of which prefers whiskey 



OF THE WORLD. 1 1 7 

to food, and looks upon drunkenness as the chief gateway 
to happiness. 

The biography of the eminent Scottish poet Robert Burns, 
and the sad story of the habits into which he was led by the 
example of the gentry with whom he for a time associated, 
present us a picture of a noble intellect ruined and a useful 
life shortened by excessive indulgence in the pleasures of 
the bottle — a picture which might be expanded into a gallery 
composed of many of the foremost intellects of the age. 

We may briefly describe the reign of intemperance in Eng- 
land during the eighteenth century. In the beginning of 
the century beer and ale continued to be the popular bev- 
erages. L,ecky, in his England in the Eighteenth Century, 
says that in 1688, with a population of 5,000,000, there were 
brewed 12,400,000 barrels, and that nearly a third of the 
arable land was devoted to barley to be converted into beer. 

This careful and able author draws a terrible picture of 
what ensued, from which we extract the following state- 
ments: In 1689 the importation of spirits from foreign 
countries was prohibited, and distillation rapidly extended 
in England. Gin-drinking became quickly popular, though 
the passion for this fatal beverage did not fairly extend to 
the masses till about 1724. It then spread among them like 
a violent epidemic — a plague surpassing in its fatal effects 
the epidemics of disease which have from time to time visit- 
ed that country. The "black death" was hardly a more 
terrible visitant. 

The spirits distilled increased from 2,000,000 gallons in 
1 7 14 to 5,394,000 gallons in 1735, and 7,000,000 in 1742. 
Physicians declared that the excessive gin-drinking was kill- 
ing off the poor with alarming rapidity. The grand jury 
of Middlesex asserted that nearly all the poverty, the rob- 
bery, and the murders of London were due to this single 
cause. All the effects of beer-drunkenness were more than 



Il8 THE WHITE ANGEL 

redoubled by the use of this powerful and fatal stimulant. 
Proprietors of gin-houses promised on their signs to make 
their customers drunk for a penny, and dead-drunk for two- 
pence, and to furnish them with straw for nothing. Cellars 
strewn with straw were provided, into which the insensible 
were dragged that they might sleep themselves sober enough 
to renew their orgies. 

Parliament at length endeavored to arrest this national 
epidemic of suicide by imposing heavy taxes on the manu- 
facture and sale of spirits, but the passion for liquor had 
grown too strong for the law. Violent riots ensued, and the 
taxes were soon evaded by clandestine manufacture and sale, 
while smuggling became very common. In 1749 more than 
four thousand persons were convicted of selling spirits with- 
out a license, while the number of private gin-shops was 
estimated at more than seventeen thousand. As a conse- 
quence, crime and immorality of every kind rapidly increased. 

The London physicians stated in 1750 that in and about 
the city there were fourteen thousand cases of illness, mostly 
incurable, which could be directly traced to gin. Fielding 
in 1 75 1 ascribed the increase of robbery " to a new kind of 
drunkenness unknown to our ancestors," and declared that 
gin was the principal sustenance of more than one hundred 
thousand of the people of London. He predicted that if 
the rage for gin continued at the same rate for twenty years, 
there would be ' ' very few of the common people left to 
drink it." At that time more than 11,000,000 gallons were 
annually consumed, and the death-rate was so great as de- 
cidedly to check the increase of population. 

In 1 75 1 new and more stringent parliamentary measures 
were adopted, which had an important effect in decreasing 
the rage for liquor. Distillers were prohibited, under pen- 
alty, from themselves retailing or selling to unlicensed 
retailers. Debts for liquor of less than twenty shillings 



OF THE WORLD. I I 9 

were made irrecoverable by law. Licenses were granted 
only to persons of a certain grade of respectability, while 
the penalties for unlicensed retailing were greatly increased 
in severity. This and subsequent measures produced a 
marked diminution in drunkenness, while the disease of 
dropsy, which had become of unprecedented prevalence, 
immediately declined. Yet the evil was by no means ended, 
and during the remainder of the century the gin-shop con- 
stituted a severe check to the moral and commercial progress 
of England. Of all the pictures of Hogarth, none are more 
impressive than those where he represents the different con- 
ditions of a people whose natural beverage is beer and of 
a people who are addicted to gin. His "Gin Alley" and 
" Rum Alley " are worth ten chapters of argument in teach- 
ing the beastliness of drunkenness. 

Of the drunkards in the higher classes of society, Lecky 
says that Addison was not free from it; Oxford, a man of 
high character, did not hesitate to come drunk into the 
presence of the queen; Bolingbroke sat up whole nights 
drinking; Walpole, when a young man, was made by his 
father to drink twice to his once, so that he might not in 
his sober senses behold his father in a state of intoxication; 
Carteret clouded his brilliant intellect by drink; and even 
Poulteney, the most religious politician of his time, short- 
ened his life by drinking. 

As an illustration of the state of affairs in the highest 
society, and of the toleration with which drunkenness was 
received, we may quote from a letter, now among the manu- 
scripts of the British Museum, written by the private secre- 
tary of the duchess of Marlborough to Pope the poet. It 
begins thus : "Sir, my lady, the duchess, being drunk, was 
unable to see you yesterday." 

Much more might be said about the consumption of ardent 
spirits in the British Islands and the generally prevailing 



I 20 THE WHITE ANGEL 

intemperance on the continent of Europe during the same 
period, but it seems unnecessary to multiply examples. It 
will suffice to say that beer in Germany, wine and brandy 
in France, gin and ale in England, whiskey in Ireland and 
Scotland, and similar strong liquors in Holland, Sweden, 
Russia, and other European countries were imbibed with an 
unlimited profusion that filled all these nations with drunk- 
ards, and that at the opening of the nineteenth century the 
prevalence and the evil effects of intemperance were as great 
as they had been at any time during the history of the world. 
It must not, however, be supposed that at any time during 
the history of mankind drunkenness has been universal, 
though there have been periods in which the great mass 
of the population, women little less than men, became to 
a greater or less extent intemperate. Yet examples of 
abstinence have not been wanting at any period, and many 
illustrious instances might be named. In later English his- 
tory the poet Milton and Locke the philosopher were strictly 
temperate, and Dr. Johnson became so in his later life. The 
poet Cowper painted the intemperance of the land in verses 
of the most biting satire. Dr. Erasmus Darwin was a pro- 
hibitionist of ultra type. Of religious societies, that of the 
Quakers from its origin inculcated the strictest temperance, 
and the same may be said of the early Methodists. Yet 
despite tliese and many other illustrious examples which 
might be given, it may justly be said that up to the open- 
ing of the present century u the people" had never fairly 
risen in rebellion against the evil of intemperance, while 
the history of prohibitory efforts clearly indicates that only 
by the support of the people at large can success be ever 
attained. 



1 ^M^MtfiMez 


^^fi^r^^;! 


^^^^^^m 





CHAPTER V. 

THE ADVENT OF RUM IN AMERICA. 

OUR review of intemperance in the past brings us now 
much nearer home — namely, to the consideration of 
its development in America from the comparative abstemi- 
ousness of the early settlers to the abnormal excess of liquor- 
drinking during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. 

The settlers of America brought two potent destructives 
to aid them in sweeping off the aboriginal inhabitants — the 
musket and the rum-bottle. It is not easy to decide which 
was the most murderous in its effects. The savages of this 
country, as elsewhere, though with a great natural prone- 
ness to stimulants, did not possess any powerful intoxicating 
drinks. In fact, we have no proof that they possessed any, 
though the Aztecs of Mexico had attained to the civilized 
vice of intoxication. To the savage souls of the aborigines 
the effects of alcohol came as a new and magical revelation. 
The newcomers were not long in teaching them the qualities 
of this death-dealing gift. In the voyage of Henry Hud- 
son up the river that bears his name a brandy-bottle was the 
first of his gifts to the natives. Fearing, as he says, that the 
Indians meant treachery, and wishing to throw them off their 
guard that he might test their faithfulness, he invited sev- 
eral of the chiefs into the cabin of his ship, the Half Moon, 
and plied them well with the new and strange beverage. 

One of them became drunk, doubtless played the fool as 
drunken men seldom fail to do, and soon fell into the sleep 
of intoxication. His companions, astonished and alarmed 



122 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



at these strange symptoms, made a rapid retreat from the 
ship, leaving him behind. They returned some time after- 
ward, bringing beads, perhaps with the hope of bribing or 
exorcising the i ' foul fiend ' ' who had taken possession of 




their unlucky friend. The drunken chief did not sleep off 
the effects of his debauch till the following morning, when 
he awoke with no trace of ill effect in body, but with that 
perilous craving of the mind which has since then brought 
destruction to many of his race. As the ship sailed on up the 
stream he was eager to remain on board, hoping to obtain 
from the white ' ' gods ' ' a renewal of their divine gift. 

Thus to the Indians of New York came that insidious, 
death-dealing agent than which nothing has been more 
effective in sweeping them from the face of the earth. 



OF THE WORLD. I 23 

Beer, brandy, and wine came at once into use in the 
American colonies. The laws called them ' ' the good crea- 
tures of God, ' ' and taverns were not only licensed to sell, 
but were required to keep a stock of them on hand. Yet in 
the early colonies excess in drinking was deprecated and pun- 
ished. Severe laws were passed against tippling-houses and 
drunkenness. 

The Puritan colonies of New England were particularly 
earnest in their efforts to repress intoxication. From the 
nearly records of Plymouth we learn that John Holmes in 
1633 was sentenced to the stocks and a fine of twenty shil- 
lings for drunkenness; in 1635, Joseph Bidle was fined forty 
shillings for the same offence; in 1636, Thomas Savery was 
publicly whipped. Various similar instances might be given, 
yet they are so few as to indicate that very little drunkenness 
existed. 

The settlers of the Massachusetts colony made similar 
efforts to repress intemperance. In 1639 a law was passed 
that forbade the drinking of healths, from the tendency of 
the custom to lead to drunkenness and quarrelling. In 1645 
was enacted a law that fined all innkeepers who permitted 
any one to become drunk or to sit tippling for more than 
half an hour in their houses. It was considered excessive 
drinking when more than half a pint of wine was allowed 
at one time to one person. 

In 1646 a more stringent measure was passed, which took 
radical steps to prevent the sale of liquor by any but licensed 
houses; and in 1654, as drunkenness appeared to be on the 
increase, it was ordained that ' ' None licensed to sell strong 
waters, nor any private householder, shall permit any person 
or persons to sit tippling strong waters, wine, or stronge 
beere in their houses, under severe penalties — for the first 
offence twenty shillings, and in default of payment to be set 
in the stocks; for the second offence, forty shillings and for- 



124 THE WHITE ANGEL 

feiture of license; for the third, to be put under a twenty- 
pound bond for good behavior, with two sufficient sureties, 
or be committed to prison. ' ' 

The settlers of Connecticut were equally determined to 
prevent excessive drinking. In relation thereto there is a 
story of considerable interest: A vessel from Boston touched 
at Norwalk, whereupon the report quickly circulated through 
the town that it had on board a barrel of rum which the 
captain proposed to land. An indignation meeting of the 
principal citizens was at once held, and the captain was asked 
if he actually had such a freight and intended to unlade it in 
their realm. He replied that such was his intention. 

u You shall never land it on our shores!" cried the indig- 
nant and horrified settlers. "What! a whole barrel of rum! 
It will corrupt our morals and be our undoing. ' ' 

In the colony of New Hampshire, whose settlers were more 
worldly in character than their Puritan neighbors to the south, 
rum was made to serve a commercial purpose. Too poor to 
indulge freely themselves, they used this beverage as an arti- 
cle of trade with the Indians, who were only too ready to 
exchange furs for liquor. Two quarts of rum would buy a 
fine otter's skin, with a proportionate price for other furs. 
The trade proved highly profitable to the whites, who, while 
somewhat abstemious themselves, had no scruples against 
furnishing the Indians with ready means of intoxication. 

In the other colonies legal restrictive measures were taken, 
but without effect. A prohibitive law against the sale of 
wine and ardent spirits in Virginia was passed in 1676, but 
it remained a dead letter. In Pennsylvania, in 1682, it was 
ordained that "drunkenness, encouragement of drunken- 
ness, drinking or pledging of healths, should be punished 
by fine and imprisonment. ' ' Laws to the same effect were 
enacted in other colonies, yet despite every effort the use of 
strong liquors gradually increased, though it was far from 



<y 



OF THE WORLD. I 25 

attaining in the early period of the country to the excess 
which at that time existed in England. Only in Canada did 
drunkenness grow common at an early date. Brandy in that 
cold climate quickly became an every-day beverage, and by 
1700 the land was filled with drinking-houses. The town 
of Three Rivers, for example, consisted of but twenty-five 
houses, at eighteen or twenty of which liquor might be had. 
Similar conditions existed in Montreal and Quebec. The 
consequences, as may well be imagined, were ruinous to the 
prosperity of the colony. 

The passionate desire of the Indians for strong drink was 
differently dealt with by the different colonies. While New 
Hampshire supplied them freely, and the Dutch of New 
Netherlands were equally unscrupulous, the settlers of Mas- 
sachusetts passed severe laws against furnishing them with 
liquor. Some of the wiser sachems, perceiving the effect 
that was being produced upon their people, earnestly re- 
quested the people of New Hampshire to sell them no more 
rum. This request was disregarded, and the immoral traffic 
went on. 

In Canada the influence of the Jesuits was exerted against 
supplying the Indians with liquor, and was so effectual that 
for a number of years no Frenchman " dared to give a glass 
of brandy to an Algonquin or a Huron. ' ' The savages, in 
consequence, took their peltries to the Dutch, who readily 
supplied them. As a result, the Canadian trade with the 
Indians rapidly fell off, while it was also perceived that 
the savages were coming under the influence of the Dutch 
parsons. These results were too much for Canadian scruples, 
and in 1666 the restriction was removed. From that time 
forward Jesuits as well as others used brandy in trading with 
the Indians. 

As a natural consequence, drunkenness became as prev- 
alent with the red men as it was with the whites of Canada, 



126 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



and the streets of Montreal and Quebec presented fright- 
ful pictures of dissipation and violence. Charlevoix, who 
reached Canada in 1705, says, "Husbands, wives, fathers, 
mothers, brothers, and sisters were frequently seen in the 




streets of Montreal in a state of intoxication, worrying one 
another with their teeth like so many enraged wolves." 
Nothing further need be said as to the effect, in extirpating 
Indians, of this potent auxiliary of the musket. 

The efforts to repress intemperance in America, as we 
have seen, had proved of considerable efficacy during the 
seventeenth century. After the year 1700 their effect grad- 
ually vanished and intemperance increased, until it reached 
its ultimate height in the early days of the succeeding cen- 
tury. 

One main cause of the development of intoxication in 



OF THE WORLD. 12 J 

America during the eighteenth century was the introduc- 
tion of rum, at first imported largely from the West Indies, 
and then manufactured still more largely in New England. 
This powerful liquor, one of the strongest of all intoxicants, 
was a resultant of the extensive culture of sugar-cane, being 
distilled from molasses, the cheap residuum of the sugar 
product. It was first produced about the middle of the 
seventeenth century, and quickly followed sugar as an 
article of import to the American colonies. 

By the year 1700 the distillation of rum from molasses 
had begun in New England. Its manufacture extended to 
other colonies, but New England continued the principal 
centre of the disreputable industry, and the product became 
widely known as " New England rum," a large export trade 
in this American staple springing up with Europe and else- 
where. As rum was used at home to pay the Indians for 
furs, so it became the currency in Africa to pay for slaves. 
It would be difficult to say who suffered the most from the 
vile bargain, the slaves or those who sold them for such 
perilous coin. 

In Newport, Rhode Island, there were thirty rum-distil- 
leries, and before the close of the century as many were 
established in Boston. At one time the price of this vil- 
lanous product was as low as fourpence a quart, and the 
means of growing "as drunk as Bacchus" were within the 
reach of the poorest laborer. 

The alarming development of intemperance in America 
during the period under consideration has been ascribed to 
several causes. Principal among these were the severity and 
fickleness of the climate, the absence of grape-culture, and the 
abundance and cheapness of molasses, through which rum 
took the place of the wines of Europe. The plentiful crops 
of grain also aided in deluging the country with intoxicating 
drinks. The high rewards of labor, and the plenty enjoyed 



128 THE WHITE ANGEL 

by the inhabitants, enabled every one to obtain an abundant 
supply of intoxicating liquor, and during the half century 
after the Declaration of Independence intemperance attained 
a development in America hardly equalled by that of Britain 
and Scandinavia, and unapproached elsewhere. It is esti- 
mated that thirty thousand deaths were annually due to this 
cause alone, while nearly or quite one-fourth of the families 
of the United States were sufferers from immoderate drink- 
ing — usually of the father of the family. 

The two wars of the eighteenth century helped to increase 
this abnormal thirst. In the French and Indian War rum 
formed a part of the army rations, it being held that the 
soldiers could not stand the severity of the winters without 
some such stimulant. Rumsellers followed the camps, and 
at the end of the war it was found that many previously 
temperate persons had become drunkards. The demand for 
rum was much greater after than before the war, distilleries 
sprung up everywhere, and an abundant supply met the ab- 
normal demand. 

In evidence of how greatly the early temperance of the 
New England colonists had declined we may quote from a 
sermon delivered in 1775: " Vast numbers of young and old, 
male and female, are given to intemperance, so that it is no 
uncommon thing to see drunken women, and I fear there 
are many of our youth who are training up for rank drunk- 
ards. ' ' 

The Revolutionary War added to this growing demorali- 
zation. The distillation of spirits enormously increased 
through the check to foreign commerce, and the wines and 
beers which had formed a fair share of the preceding stimu- 
lants were everywhere replaced by more powerful liquors. 
As in the previous war, rum and whiskey formed part of the 
army rations, and thousands of drunkards were made in the 
army. At the end of the war the thirst for these fiery bev- 



OF THE WORLD. 



129 



erages had become almost universal, and the political free- 
dom which the colonists had gained was accompanied by a 
new slavery — that to the most debasing of the appetites. 
Dissipation was universal, alike at marriages, christenings, 




The Morals of the Bottle. 



and funerals. Every occasion that brought people together 
brought out the rum-bottle. We hear of a gallon of wine 
and one of cider being charged as ' ' incidentals ' ' to the 
funeral of a pauper, while the burying of the Rev. Thomas 
Cobbett in 1685 was washed down with a barrel of wine 
and two of cider, with ' ' some spice and ginger for the 
cider. ' ' 

A court could not be held without a considerable modicum 
of wine and spirits, while juries were aided in their delibera- 
tions by the same strange aid to cool judgment. Taverns 



I 30 THE WHITE ANGEL 

everywhere existed, and formed the favorite club-houses 
of the inhabitants, where, around the great open fireplaces 
with their enormous blazing logs, the popular drinks of flip, 
egg-nog, punch, and apple-jack went the rounds of the gos- 
siping assembly, whose evening newspaper was a bowl of 
punch and the chat of tipsy newsmongers. The drinking 
of the common people was very sociably conducted, the same 
mug or bowl passing round from lip to lip. 

The clergy were but little better in this respect than the 
laity. The Rev. J. N. Tarbox says that "ordinations were 
scenes of festivity, in which copious drinking had a large 
share, and an ordination ball often ended the occasion. Not 
very far from the period of the Revolution several councils 
were held in one of the towns of Massachusetts, where the 
people were trying to get rid of a minister who was often 
the worse for liquor even in the pulpit, and once, at least, at 
the communion table; but some of the neighboring min- 
isters stood by him, and the people had to endure him till 
his death." 

It was not unusual for towns to vote u to buy a barrel of 
rum to raise the meeting-house;" and there was, indeed, 
hardly a conceivable occasion in which . liquor was not an 
essential element. It served to allay heat and to banish cold, 
to double the transport of joy and to dry the tears of grief; 
while, though everybody was not a drunkard, the idea of 
total abstinence scarcely existed, it being generally held that 
liquor was essential to the health of the community. 

Elder Crockett, a popular pastor, whose countenance had 
become florid in his old age from a half century of potations, 
meeting one of his earlier friends, who had grown suspi- 
ciously corpulent, inquired, " How is this, Brown? Is this 
solid flesh or is it rum bloat?" — "Rum bloat, elder, noth- 
ing else. And I can safely swear that you, during these 
many years, have been painting your face with something 



OF THE WORLD. 131 

stronger than cold water." It is hardly fair, however, to 
single out by name one pastor from the mass of ministerial 
worthies on whom rum must have made its mark. 

AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 

The half century between 1775 and 1825 was the period 
of the culmination of drunkenness in America, the era in 
which travellers from Europe truly declared that intemper- 
ance was ' ' the most striking characteristic of the American 
people," and in which, in the words of a French official, 
whiskey was u the best part of the American government." 
It was the era in which the various causes tending to pro- 
duce intoxication in the colonies had reached their ultimate 
development, while the temperance reform movement had 
yet produced no visible effect; and at no time during the 
history of the world has there been a greater pandemonium 
of drunkenness than America presented during that dis- 
creditable half century. 

The consumption of spirits continued to increase during 
the whole period until the first effectual check was put to it 
by the activity of the temperance reformers after 1825. From 
1792 to 1810 the number of distilleries in the United States 
increased from 2579 to 14,191. In 1792 the consumption, 
principally of distilled spirits, amounted to 11,008,447 gal- 
lons. In 1810 it has been given as a low estimate at 
33,365,559 gallons. During the period involved the popu- 
lation had not quite doubled. This estimate makes an 
average in 1810 of four and four-sevenths gallons for every 
person in the country, or, leaving out the probable non- 
drinkers, of nearly ten gallons to each person. 

To quote from Mr. Dexter, president of the ' ' Massachu- 
setts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance " in 1814: 
" The solemn fact is, more than four times as much spirit is 
consumed on the farm now as was used upon the same farm, 



132 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



by the same conductors of it, twenty years ago. The pocket- 
flask is grown into a case-bottle, and the keg into a barrel. 
This fact is not affirmed upon light evidence. The conse- 
quence is found to be that the bloated countenance and the 
tottering frame are become a frequent spectacle among the 




yeomen of the country, once regarded, even to a proverb, 
the healthiest, the hardiest, the happiest class of the com- 
munity. ' ' 

The vice of drunkenness continued to increase from that 
period to 1825, when the mad carnival of intoxication in 
America reached its ultimate height. The annual consump- 
tion of spirits and wine steadily advanced from two and a 



OF THE WORLD. 133 

half gallons per head in 1792 to four and four-sevenths in 
1810, and to seven and a half gallons in 1823, according to 
the estimate of the Boston Recorder. In the latter year 
there were " poured down the throats of ten millions of 
people seventy-five millions of gallons of liquid fire, ming- 
ling and flowing with their life-blood." 

As examples of the general condition of affairs, it is stated 
that the nineteen hundred inhabitants of the town of Fitch- 
burg, Massachusetts, consumed one hundred hogsheads of 
rum in the year 1825, an( ^ Shrewsbury, with fourteen hun- 
dred inhabitants, swallowed one hundred and twenty hogs- 
heads, while thirty-four families of Salisbury, Connecticut, 
consumed twenty-nine and a half gallons of rum to each 
family. Of another town in Connecticut it is stated that 
one hundred of its inhabitants used sixty-four gallons each 
annually, or one pint and a half each per day. 

In certain newly-developed regions of the country whiskey 
is said to have been almost the sole product. As in modern 
times corn is fed to hogs as a more portable mode of carrying 
it, so in the past grain was converted into whiskey for the 
same purpose, it being a common saying that ' ' a horse could 
carry only four bushels of rye, but he could carry the whiskey 
made from twenty-four bushels. ' ' 

This devotion to whiskey as the main article of manu- 
facture was particularly the case in Western Pennsylvania, 
where, indeed, it acquired national importance as the origin 
of the celebrated ' c Whiskey War, ' ' one of the most notable 
events of Washington' s term of Presidency. To quote from 
McMaster,* "What a bank-bill was at Philadelphia or a 
shilling-piece at Lancaster, that was whiskey in the towns 
and villages that lay along the banks of the Monongahela 
River. It was the money, the circulating medium, of the 
country. A gallon of good rye whiskey at every store at 

* History of the People of the United States, vol. ii. 



1 34 THE WHITE ANGEL 

Pittsburg, and at every farm-house in the four counties of 
Washington, Westmoreland, Alleghany, and Fayette, was 
the equivalent of a shilling piece. A tax of seven cents a 
gallon was, therefore, a crushing one." 

It was sufficient, as it proved, to give rise to a dangerous 
insurrection. The excise law passed by Congress was vio- 
lently resisted in the district in question, and the assessors 
were driven from the country, some of them being subjected 
to personal violence. The whole region finally broke into 
open revolt, and it became necessary to call out a military 
force to subdue the insurgents. It was the first instance in 
which the authority of the government, under the Constitu- 
tion, to call out the militia of the States was exercised. Wash- 
ington placed himself at the head of the improvised army and 
marched against the rebels. He finally left the force under 
the charge of General Lee, who led it across the mountains 
by a difficult route. This show of force was sufficient to 
put an end to the war. The loud-talking rebels dispersed, 
the enforcement of the law was secured, and the partisans 
of whiskey were forced to acknowledge that there was a 
higher law in the land than that of the bottle and the jug. 

To get drunk in those days had no injurious effect on a 
man's standing in society. Kidder, in his History of New 
Ipswich, New Hampshire, says, ' ' everybody drank more or 
less, from the minister and his deacon downward. They 
drank on all occasions. The doctor could not visit a patient 
without being offered his dose of stimulus; when the patient- 
died the mourners stifled their grief with liberal potations. 
.... No one thought of making a friendly call or doing 
his shopping without enjoying the rites of hospitality in 
the shape of cider, toddy, sling, or flip; and on all working 
occasions, such as raisings and reaping, haying and high- 
ways, the 'eleven o'clock' and Tour o'clock' were abso- 
lutely indispensable to man and boy." 



OF THE WORLD. 



CO 



The Rev. Leonard Woods could reckon among his acquaint- 
ances ' ' forty ministers, and none of them at a great dis- 
tance, who were either drunkards or so far addicted to 
drinking that their reputation and usefulness were greatly 
impaired, if not utterly ruined. " Another writer of the 
same period says: "A great many deacons in New England 
died drunkards. I have a list of one hundred and twenty- 
three intemperate deacons in Massachusetts, forty-three of 
whom became sots." 

So great grew the thirst for ardent spirits, indeed, that 
bread was hardly more indispensable to the household. In 
laying in the family supplies this necessary was seldom for- 
gotten, whatever else might be omitted, while no house was 
deemed to be provided for the winter without a plentiful 
stock of cider — six or eight barrels being considered a mod- 
erate store, while twenty or thirty were not uncommon. 

Schouler's History of the United States says that "prior 
to 1825 the use of ardent spirits in the United States was 
almost universal, and intoxication might be pronounced the 
national vice. At the chief colleges liquor was freely sold 
from the booths upon public days, and municipal authorities 
would provide free punch for those who marched on a train- 
ing-day. The clerks in the country store mixed their toddy 
together at noon, retailing liquor to^customers for the rest 
of the day. The thirst of travellers by the wearisome stage 
and steamboat was proverbial. The office of an inn was 
styled the bar-room, and on the dinner- table stood decan- 
ters of brandy free to the guests." 

Professor Calvin E. Stowe stated in an address in 1866: 
"My recollections cover a period of sixty years, the first 
twenty-five including the time when drinking habits were 
at their worst in this country. I was born and brought up 
in Middlesex county, Massachusetts, one of the best coun- 
ties of one of the best States. Its moral condition would 



136 THE WHITE ANGEL 

compare favorably with the best portions of the country, and 
yet before I was four years old I was drunk. My father was 
not a drinker, but he considered it a duty of hospitality to 
furnish liquor to guests. Among other liquors he had a 
lot of cherry rum. One day he poured the cherries on the 
ground out back of the house. I got hold of them, thought 
them pretty good, ate a large quantity, and was made inglor- 
iously drunk. It is about the first sensation I recollect, and 
a most painful one it was. Soon after this I went out to a 
part of the farm away from the house and found the men 
at their lunch. I stole a drink, and again got drunk. And 
so frequent were the temptations that it is astonishing that 
any one grew up sober. At the age of six my father died, 
and I went to live with my grandfather. He was a good 
man and a deacon in the church, but both he and his wife 
took their daily drams at eleven in the morning and at four 
in the afternoon, and always gave to me at the same time; 

and that was the custom of the country. Mr. O B , 

a resident in that section, said that in his father's day — that 
is, in 1760 — they laid in a pint of rum for haying on his 
father's farm; but his son in 1810 was obliged to lay in half 
a barrel of rum for haying on the same farm ; so much had 

the drinking custom grown in fifty years There was a 

grocery store in the town, kept by Deacon Kb, as he was 
always called, where an enormous amount of rum was sold. 
He failed, and in some way his account-books were scattered 
about the streets. We boys called them Deacon's Eb's psalm- 
books. The charges in them ran somewhat thus: ' To rum, 
to tod, to rum, to tod, to rum, to rum, to rum.' Nine out 
of ten of the charges were for either rum or toddy. I recol- 
lect being in a store one day when an old man came in who 
was once the owner of a fine farm. He was squalid and 
trembling, but called for toddy. With his trembling hands 
he just managed to raise a first and second glass to his lips. 



OF THE WORLD. 



*37 



He called for a third, and, instead of taking it in his hand, 
he was obliged to place it on the counter, lean over, and 
suck it up with his lips. I look back upon this period with 
perfect terror." 

Certainly the movement for reform did not come too soon. 




Giving Drink to Babies. 



The picture here given, which doubtless was but one of 
thousands, depicts an extraordinary condition of society. 



138 THE WHITE ANGEL 

possibly without a parallel in the history of the world, and 
of which we, in these days of comparative sobriety, can 
form no adequate conception. Drunkenness had become the 
rule in the United States, and temperance the exception. 

Professor Olmstead tells the following illustrative stories 
of the habits of "the good old times." He remarks: 

' ' If the education of children for drunkenness had been 
the object aimed at, a system better adapted to secure this 
end could scarcely have been devised than that which pre- 
vailed. It began with the mother, who quaffed frequent 
draughts of the stimulant to impart nourishment to her 
tender infant. As the boy grew up and mingled with other 
boys in their juvenile sports he soon learned to make the 
intoxicating cup an object of desire, and one for the attain- 
ment of which his skill at games was put in requisition. ' ' 

In one scene, in which Olmstead was an actor, a party 
of boys played a game of ball, and the side that got beat 
was to ' ' treat ' ' the whole company. After the game was 
decided the losing side contributed their money, and it was 
found that they had enough to purchase a quart of rum. 
This was obtained at a neighboring store and converted 
into sling, of which the boys drank until all were gay and 
some were beastly drunk. 

"As the boy grew older he was exposed to continual 
temptation. The farmer had his bowl of sling prepared 
for the whole family, and all were expected to drink. The 
father took the first sip, then the mother, then the eldest 
child, and so on to the youngest, when a ' double corner } 
was turned, and the bowl passed up the line again, ending 
with the father, who must swallow all that remained. ' ? "If 
the neighbors clubbed together to cart wood for one of their 
number, the rum drank sometimes cost more than the wood 
was worth." 

He relates an anecdote of a farmer who laid in a keo- of 



OF THE WORLD. 



139 



rum for himself and wife, and to prevent over-indulgence 
he decreed that neither of them should take a drink without 




The Early Morning Glass. 



paying for it. The old man soon grew thirsty, helped him- 
self to a drink, and paid his wife six cents. Ere long she 



140 THE WHITE ANGEL 

took her dram in turn, and paid him back his six cents. 
And so the bout went on, each paying for every drink, until 
the keg was emptied, when it appeared that a single six- 
pence had paid for the whole of its contents. It was one 
of the cheapest double drunks on record. 

In the South and West the evil was as great as in the 
North. Whiskey-drinking was the curse of the settlements 
on the Ohio and the Mississippi. Their development was 
greatly impeded, while profanity, quarrelling, and wicked- 
ness of every description prevailed to an extent never sur- 
passed in Middle-Age Europe. 

An early-morning glass of whiskey was deemed in the 
South so necessary to health that both sexes and almost 
all ages partook of it. The ' ( eleven-o' clock ' ' was also 
considered essential to the proper conduct of the day's busi- 
ness, while whiskey or brandy was an invariable accompani- 
ment of dinner. This completed the ordinary day's doses, 
with the exception of the "night-cap" to secure sound 
sleep, but intermediate drinks ad libitum were required by 
good fellowship and inconvenient thirst. " Rum, seasoned 
with cherries, protected against the cold; rum, made astrin- 
gent with peach-nuts, concluded the repast at the confec- 
tioner's; rum, made nutritious with milk, prepared for the 
maternal office; and under the Greek name of paregoric 
rum, doubly poisoned with opium, quieted the infant's 
cries. 

' ' No doubt there were numbers that did not use ardent 
spirits, but it was not because they were not perpetually in 
their way. They were an established article of diet, almost 
as much so as bread; and with many they were in much 

more frequent use Sots were common in both sexes 

of various ages and of every condition; and though no sta- 
tistics of the vice were yet embodied, it was quite plain that 
it was constantly making large numbers bankrupt in cha- 



OF THE WORLD. 141 

racter, prospects, and property, and inflicting upon com- 
munities a large amount of physical and mental ill in their 
worst forms."* 

We may relate an anecdote in illustration of the condition 
of affairs existing in respectable society. The story is told 
of William Wirt, the biographer of Patrick Henry and a 
man of distinguished position as an orator and author. He 
was in early life fond of social pleasures, indulged freely in 
the convivial habits of his time, and is said to have gained 
his second wife in the following manner: On an occasion 
of over-indulgence he became so intoxicated that on his way 
home he fell in drunken insensibility on the sidewalk. While 
he lay there, under the burning beams of the sun, a young 
lady passed, recognized him, and spread her handkerchief 
over his exposed face. When he recovered and saw the 
handkerchief with the initials of the owner, he was deeply 
affected. He afterward married the lady, and expressions 
in his letters to her indicate that some such circumstance 
actually occurred. He thanks her, in grateful tones, for 
rescuing him from the dangerous habit into which he was 
falling. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PIONEERING THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 

\ T 7E have given a brief review of the annals of liquor- 
* * drinking in the past, partly with the purpose of 
omitting no phase of the subject, but more particularly to 
prove to unbiassed readers that temperance reform is not, 
as has been asserted, a demand of unreasoning fanatics, but 
a necessary part of the world's great movement out of evil 
unto good. Intemperance is a vice of barbarians. It has 
no proper place in the higher civilization. But as the dark 
ages of the past have left us multitudes of laws, customs, ideas, 
and traditions which are entirety out of harmony with the 
world of the present, but are retained by man's innate con- 
servatism, so it has left us this vicious demand for stimu- 
lants, which has become hereditarily ingrained in the human 
constitution, and needs to be removed by the radical pro- 
cesses of surgery, since it refuses to yield to the milder medi- 
cine of reason and persuasion. 

The story we have told has a significance which all readers 
may not have perceived. And this is that the career of in- 
temperance has pursued a steady course of development 
from its origin to its culmination in the early days of the 
nineteenth century. Since that period, as we shall seek to 
show in the coming chapters, a reversal of this development 
has set in, which can hardly fail to bring the world back in 
time to its primitive sobriety. 

A rapid review of the facts given in the preceding chap- 
ters will show that such a development has taken place., 
142 



OF THE WORLD. 1 43, 

With the vast multitude of auimals below man temperance 
is the universal rule. None of them have reached the stage 
of intelligence necessary to the production of alcoholic drink. 
The same was unquestionably the case with primitive man. 
How long this state of sobriety continued is, of course, be- 
yond our power to affirm, but with the dawn of history we 
find man everywhere in possession of intoxicating beverages. 

These early intoxicants, however, were mild, being prin- 
cipally composed of the pure fermented juice of the grape, 
with none of the deleterious matters subsequently added. 
There is abundant reason to believe, also, that the unfer- 
mented juice of the grape was largely employed as a bev- 
erage. It is still so used in the Bast in large quantities, 
being preserved by boiling. Thus prepared it forms a whole- 
some and agreeable drink. The term "wine" is there ap- 
plied alike to fermented and to unfermented grape-juice, and 
in the statistics of ancient drinking there is little question 
but that the latter is often meant. Testimony in favor of 
this assertion is plentiful, though we have no space for it 
here. As for the fermented wine used, that of several of 
the ancient nations was produced from grapes incapable of 
yielding a liquor rich in alcohol, so that drunkenness could 
only be attained through immoderate indulgence. 

The statue of Bacchus pressing the juice of grapes into a 
cup, of which we spoke in another chapter, and of which 
we there gave an illustration, is with good reason taken as 
evidence in favor of the theory above mentioned, that the 
pure juice of the grape was a usual and favorite drink with 
the ancients, and that the use of the word ' ' wine " is no sat- 
isfactory evidence that fermented grape-juice was meant. 

Such seems to have been the first stage of intemperance. 
A second was gained by an artificial strengthening of wine 
through admixture with powerful drugs, whose effect, how- 
ever, could scarcely have been that of ordinary intoxication. 



144 THE WHITE ANGEL 

Various results were produced, stimulating or stupefying, 
with doubtless in many cases great injury to health. Beer 
was also now made, though we know little as to its strength. 

In every stage of the movements to abate the evils of 
strong drink the advocates of the reform have had to meet 
the charge that "they wrest the Scriptures " and " the Bible 
is not a Prohibition book. ' ' There have not been lacking 
reckless spirits in every country rising up to contend that 
the history, and often the very language, of the Scriptures 
are not only tolerant of strong drink, but advisory as to its 
use. Even ministers of the gospel have been subsidized to 
write articles and make speeches upon the anti-biblical 
nature of prohibition. These ardent debaters are blinded by 
their appetites and carnal reasonings. They do not appre- 
hend the purpose and spiritual meaning of these divinely- 
planned and preserved records. They are the inspired pho- 
tographs of the environment, habitudes, and history of the 
providential people, whose experiences, errors, fortunes, and 
misfortunes are put forward for the warning and profit of all 
future peoples. No good man can mistake their import. 
They are a constant witness against strong drink ; they show 
the wisdom of the Creator as wholly opposed to their use 
among nations ; and the record of Christ shows a friend and 
Saviour of humanity whose whole nature and aims must for 
ever and absolutely antagonize strong drink. 

In China and India a more powerful intoxicant was pro- 
duced from rice at an early period, and in both countries it 
seems to have gradually replaced the milder wines and greatly 
increased the intemperance of those countries. We find the 
emperors of China sternly prohibiting drunkenness from 
"spirits " and wine, and ordering the uprooting of the vines; 
while in India the "Laws of Manu" denounce the drinking 
of sura, or ' ' rice wine, ' ' under severe penalties. Intemper- 
ance in both countries had evidently become a serious evil. 



OF THE WORLD. 1 45 

The next stage in the development of drunkenness came 
in with the discovery of the art of distillation. This dis- 
covery seems to have been first made in Eastern Asia, though 
how remotely it is impossible to say. Alcohol was first 
known in Europe about seven centuries ago, but its use 
was for a long period confined to medicinal purposes, and 
the development of intoxication made no special progress 
until ardent spirits came into common use as a beverage 
some three centuries ago. 

The growth of drunkenness through the use of this pow- 
erful intoxicant was greatly checked by the preference of 
the Teutonic nations for the beer to which they had been 
for ages habituated, and of the nations of the south of 
Europe for their native wines. But both beers and wines 
were strengthened by the addition of alcohol and by other 
means, and the development of intemperance went steadily 
on. 

With the opening of the eighteenth century the use of 
alcoholic drinks became much more prevalent, and in Eng- 
land, Ireland, Sweden, and some other countries it grew 
during the century to be an evil of frightful proportions. 
In England gin-drinking became a vice of terrible aspect, 
which reduced the poor of London to a state of misery, 
disease, and destitution seldom paralleled during the his- 
tory of mankind, and carried them off by thousands to the 
drunkard's grave. The daily scenes in one of the low gin- 
shops of that period formed a series of frightful pictures of 
depravity and low indulgence of the appetites which have 
nothing like them to-day upon the face of the earth. The 
temperance reform movement has cured in this one of the 
worst evils that ever afflicted mankind. 

In Europe, however, the milder drinks — the beer of Ger- 
many, the ale of England, the wine of France and Southern 
Europe — were still largely used, but in America rum and 

10 



14^ THE WHITE ANGEL 

whiskey almost drove these less potent beverages from the 
field, and the appetite of the people of this country could 
brook nothing of a milder character than the throat-scorch- 
ing and brain-maddening liquors above named. This un- 
natural appetite culminated during the first quarter of the 
present century. The development of intemperance had 
reached its highest possible point. For ages the demand 
for stimulants had been increasing, until it gained its ulti- 
mate level in this new country, with whose inhabitants the 
drinking of the most potent beverage known had become a 
universal habit, affecting the ministers of religion little less 
than their flocks, extending through every circle of society 
and every occasion of life, indulged in by both sexes and all 
ages, and deemed an absolute requisite of health, until the 
imbibing of this "good creature of God " became so in- 
grained a custom that a vast proportion of the people of 
America went to bed every night more or less intoxicated, 
and got up the next morning not more than half sobered. 
The very grain of the American people was soaked through 
with rum, and if ever a reform was urgently needed in the 
history of the world, it was needed then and here. The tide 
of drunkenness had risen to its utmost height, and unless an 
ebb had set in the ruin and desolation which follow immod- 
erate indulgence of the baser appetites must have come upon 
the people of this Western land. 

THE VOICE OF REFORM. 

But all virtue had not died out of the land. The character 
and extent of the evil were evident to all men of reason and 
judgment, and the voices of advocates of temperance were 
from time to time heard, at first feeble and unheeded, but 
ere long growing to a loudness and persistence that forcibly 
demanded attention. 

A new phase in the history of intemperance had begun. 



OF THE WORLD. 1 47 

Efforts to check its development had been made at many 
times in the past by emperors, prophets, and priestly law- 
makers, as we have seen. Total-abstinence societies existed 
in the far past. Societies pledged against excessive indul- 
gence are known to have arisen in Europe more than four 
hundred years ago. Yet nothing like the modern reform 
movement was ever before known in the history of the world. 
The prohibitory edicts of emperors and law-makers were 
spasmodic. They were not the work of, and were not sus- 
tained by, the people. Their sole support was in the voice 
of authority, and their influence was sure to die away with 
the decline of that authority. The interdicts of Buddha and 
Mohammed against wine were more permanent, but their 
effect in modern times has greatly decreased. The absti- 
nence societies mentioned simply pledged the temperance 
of their members. They made no effort to reform mankind. 

The first popular movement, therefore, against the do- 
minion of intemperance by the aid of every possible means 
of propagandism, and the active agency of the reform sec- 
tion of the community, belongs to the nineteenth century. 
The people have risen at last against the huge evil that so 
long tied the hands of the world, and their efforts will never 
cease until a permanent reform has been achieved and the 
long reign of the demon of drunkenness has come to an end. 

As to the character of the temperance societies of the past 
in Europe, we may describe that founded by Maurice, the 
landgrave of Hesse, in 1600. It was called "The Order 
of Temperance," and included among its members several 
princes and many of the leading nobles of Germany — dukes, 
counts, landgraves, rheingraves, and margraves. Of its laws, 
the first ran as follows : " Be it ordained that every member 
of this society pledges himself from its institution, which 
dates December 25, 1600, until the same day in December, 
1602, never to become intoxicated." The daily allowance 



148 THE WHITE ANGEL 

of wine was limited to fourteen glasses — seven at each meal. 
Beer was also allowed at meals, but ' ' Spanish wines, brandy, 
and geneva, strong malt liquors, as London porter (already 
in repute abroad) and Hamborough double ales," were for- 
bidden. The seven glasses must make at least three draughts. 
The wines permitted by this notable society must have been 
weak, or the heads of its members strong, if none of its 
members showed the effect of their potations. 

The modern temperance movement had its true inception 
just a century ago in the vigorous essay against liquor-drink- 
ing issued by Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia. Many 
others had raised their voices against intemperance during 
the eighteenth century — Locke, Johnson, Young, Cowper, 
Darwin, and others in England; Putnam, Adams, Franklin, 
and others in America. The religious societies of Friends 
and Methodists had advocated temperance, and taken active 
measures to promote it among their members. Yet not till 
the issue of Dr. Rush's celebrated pamphlet, " The Effects 
of Ardent Spirits on the Human Mind and Body" in 1785, 
was the method of personal example and influence definitely 
exchanged for an appeal to the world at large, in which the 
evils of intemperance were clearly and strikingly shown 
from a medical point of view. 

This essay was republished in the Gentleman 1 s Magazine 
of England in the following year, and in the Gazette, a 
Philadelphia newspaper. It was published in many Ameri- 
can papers in 1789, and numerous subsequent editions- have 
appeared. 

It was the only important temperance document of that 
period, and, though far from coming up to the views at pres- 
ent entertained, its influence was probably the greater for 
this moderation. The time was not yet ripe for advanced 
doctrines. 

Dr. Rush directed his efforts against the use of ardent 



OF THE WORLD. 1 49 

spirits alone. From these he advised drunkards to abstain 
"suddenly and entirely," counselling them, however, as a 
temporary expedient, on account of the debility which might 
follow, to use a * ' larger quantity of beer or wine than is con- 
sistent with the strict rules of temperate living. ' ' 

This was somewhat severe advice for a period in which 
drinking was universal, and when even of Puritan New Eng- 
land a poet could say, with, as must be admitted, "more 
truth than poetry," 

" Their only wish and their only prayer, 
For the present world and the world to come, 
Was a string of eels and a jug of rum." 

Dr. Rush was a man of deep religious sentiments, a patri- 
otic American, and one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence. For years his convictions in favor of tem- 
perance had been growing, being strengthened by the abun- 
dant evidence of the hurtful effect of drink which his medical 
experience in that day must have brought him. In his essay 
his sentiments were declared with no uncertain voice. . ' ' Were 
it possible for me, ' ' he said, * ' to speak with a voice so loud 
as to be heard from the river St. Croix to the remotest shores 
of the Mississippi, which bound the territory of the United 
States, I would say, ' Friends and fellow-citizens, avoid the 
habitual use of these seducing liquors. ' ' ' 

He calls on ministers of the gospel of every denomina- 
tion to support him in his earnest appeal, and continues: 
1 ' The loss of four thousand American citizens by yellow 
fever in a single year awakened general sympathy and ter- 
ror, and called forth all the strength and ingenuity of laws 
to prevent its recurrence. Why is not the same zeal mani- 
fested in protecting our citizens from the more general and 
consuming ravages of distilled spirits?" 

Accompanying the essay was a "Moral and Physical 



i5o 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



Thermometer of Intemperance ' ' with four scales, showing 
the gradual progress of the drunkard from zero to incessant 
drams, from idleness to burglary and murder, from sickness 
to madness and despair, and from debt to the gallows. 

Dr. Rush spoke to an audience that was little in sympathy 

with him. Even his own Church, 
the Presbyterian, to which he 
particularly addressed himself, 
long ignored his appeal. It was 
not until the year 
1 8 1 1, when he pre- 




sented one thousand 
copies of his essay to 
the General Assembly 
of the Church, that he succeeded in enlisting its attention. 
The Assembly then ' ' confessed with shame the prevalence 
of the sin of drunkenness, even among some of the mem- 
bers of the household of faith," and appointed a committee 
"to devise measures which .... may have an influence 
in preventing some of the numerous and threatening mis- 
chiefs which are experienced throughout our country by the 
excessive and intemperate use of spirituous liquor." 

The Methodist Church was even slower in raising its voice 



OF THE WORLD. I 51 

in favor of temperance reform. Though as early as 1744 
John Wesley had required abstinence from spirits in the 
members of his society, forbidden the selling of them by 
his followers, and declared that dram-sellers are * ' poisoners- 
general " who "drive men to hell like sheep," yet in 1813 
when the following resolution was brought before the Meth- 
odist Church, "Resolved, that no stationed or local preacher 
shall retail spirituous or malt liquors without forfeiting his 
ministerial character among us," it was voted down. 

Yet the influence of Dr. Rush's pamphlet proved power- 
ful for good. The Presbyterian Church after its first decla- 
ration rapidly entered upon measures of reform. Dr. Clarke, 
the active organizer of the first temperance society, was stirred 
up to his action by reading Dr. Rush's pamphlet, and 172,000 
copies of the essay had been printed by the American Tract 
Society before 1850, in addition to the large number printed 
by other parties. As revised and improved by the author 
it has been a highly valuable aid to the temperance cause. 

EARLY TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 

The first American association in favor of temperance of 
which we have any knowledge was organized in 1789 by a 
body of more than two hundred farmers of the county of 
Litchfield, Connecticut. The avowed purpose of this asso- 
ciation was ' ' to discourage the use of spirituous liquors. ' ' 
They resolved not to distribute any distilled liquors to their 
farm-hands. There is nothing to show that they objected 
to the use of fermented liquors. 

Moderate as this pronunciamento may seem to us, it was 
enough to raise a decided stir among the men to whom the 
u 'leven-o' clock bitters," and the rum supplied "for mechan- 
ical purposes ' ' in raisings, ploughing-matches, and similar 
occasions, were looked upon as vested rights. Little less 
than a riot occurred. The reformers were accused of wish- 



152 THE WHITE ANGEL 

ing to cheat their hands of the liquor due them out of pure 
stinginess; they were mocked and insulted in public places; 
their fences were destroyed, their horses' tails sheared, their 
houses smeared with filth, and every method of annoyance 
short of actual violence was resorted to. They were looked 
upon as intolerable fanatics, and no one who could find em- 
ployment with more liberal farmers would work for them. 

Other individual movements in favor of temperance took 
place, but the first society for the promulgation of temper- 
ance ideas was "The Union Temperance Society of Moreau 
and Northumberland," organized in Saratoga county, N. Y., 
on April 30, 1808. The original mover in this organization 
was Dr. William J. Clarke, a young physician, who induced 
his pastor, Rev. Iyebeus Armstrong, and Esek Cavan, a law- 
yer, to join him in the pioneer enterprise. 

A temperance story is told by one member of this trio 
which is of sufficient interest to be here introduced. Mr. 
Armstrong tells us how he one day related to his father — 
who was given to the almost universal habit of his time — an 
account of a man who had broken his bottle, declaring that 
he would be a slave to it no longer. He continues: 

"To this account the old gentleman listened with deep 
and solemn attention. I proceeded: 'Now, dear father, pub- 
lic notice was given yesterday that I would deliver a temper- 
ance address at the school-house on Bast Line on the 26th. 
How much strength and energy and effect would it add if I 
could be able to announce that my father has thus disposed 
of his jug of whiskey!' ' Bring it here,' said the old man 
promptly, ( and I will do it. ' 

' ' My mother and wife were requested to take their seat in 
the room where the old gentleman sat. The half-gallon 
stone jug, nearly half full of the poisonous beverage, was 
next presented in the presence of the family. ' Move those 
andirons apart,' said the old man, 'and set the jug between 



OF THE WORLD. 



153 



them. ' It was done as he directed. Rising from his chair, 
he took his large, heavy, self-made, hard-wood cane by the 
smallest end with both hands, and, after looking earnestly 
and silently at the object before him during a few moments, 
as though he was deliberating on the consequences of the 
crisis, he thus addressed the jug: 'I'll be a slave to you no 
longer.' Thus saying, with his might he smote the jug 
with the head of his cane, which dashed it in pieces into 
the fire. As the contents flamed up the chimney in lucid 




demonstration that the poisonous composition was made to 
burn and not to drink, he exclaimed, 'That is well done; 
I'll never drink another drop of spirituous liquor during my 
life.'" 

We need scarcely declare that the old man kept his word. 

The Moreau society was organized, as we have said, on 
April 30, 1808. The story is told of Dr. Clarke that he had 
been so deeply impressed with the evils of intemperance 
through the reading of Dr. Rush's essay that he could not 



154 THE WHITE ANGEL 

rest. One dark evening, in the cool days of early spring, 
he rode three miles through the mud and knocked at Mr. 
Armstrong's door. On entering he remarked, before taking 
a seat, ' ' Mr. Armstrong, I have come to see you on import- 
ant business. ' ' Then, with an impressive gesture, he con- 
tinued, ( ' We shall all become a community of drunkards in 
this town unless something is done to arrest the progress of 
intemperance." In those few words lay the germ of the 
temperance-reform associations which have made such won- 
derful progress within the eighty years succeeding. 

Dr. Clarke proceeded to describe his plan for a temperance 
organization. His host heartily entered into his views, and 
that night's conversation gave rise to the pioneer temperance 
society, which was organized under a constitution of fifteen 
articles with forty-three signers. The pledge taken was not 
a very severe one, nor the penalties for breaking it very 
onerous. The time was not yet ripe for radical measures. 
The constitution required that 

1 ' No member shall drink rum, gin, whiskey, wine, or any 
distilled spirits, .... except by advice of a physician or 
in case of actual disease (also excepting at public dinners), 
under the penalty of twenty-five cents; provided that this 
article shall not infringe on any religious rite. 

' ' No member shall be intoxicated, under penalty of fifty 
cents. 

' ' No member shall offer any of the above liquors to any 
person to drink thereof, under penalty of twenty-five cents 
for each offence."* 

The ' ' religious rites ' ' at which members were privileged 

*It maybe of interest to state that in October, 1843, thirty-five years after its 
formation, the surviving members of this society met again, and on motion of Dr. 
■Clarke passed the following: " Resolved, That the constitution adopted April, 1808, 
be amended by adopting the pledge of total abstinence from all that can intoxi- 
cate. : ' 



OF THE WORLD. I 55 

to get drunk without penalty were such occasions as fun- 
erals, weddings, church dedications, ministerial ordinations, 
and the like, at which free liquor was the rule. 

There was certainly nothing in the constitution of this 
society, whatever there might have been in the resolution 
of its members, to excite alarm in the liquor- selling fra- 
ternity. It was a very small step upon the road of reform. 
Yet it excited wide attention, meeting with ridicule from 
some, while others denounced it as an attempt to deprive 
men "of the liberties peculiar to appetite." 

Other societies followed. One in Maine is said to have 
bound those of its members who got drunk ' ' to treat all 
round, ' ' while another in the same State pledged its mem- 
bers to be u sparing and cautious in the use of spirituous 
liquors at home; in social visits to decline them as far as 
possible, and to avoid them totally in retailing stores." 

The second society in date was one organized on April i, 
1809, at Greenfield, Saratoga county, N. Y. This society 
has the honor of being still in existence, being now seventy- 
nine years old. It began with seven members of the Green- 
field Congregational Church under the presidency of Rev. 
Blias Gilbert, presumably pastor of that church. It is said 
to have required entire abstinence from ardent spirits. 

In October, 1812, a society for the "Reformation of 
Morals" was organized in Connecticut under the auspices 
of the Congregational Church. In February of the next 
year the "Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of In- 
temperance ' ' came into existence. In the expression of its 
-sentiments it occupied a somewhat lower plane than that of 
the earlier societies, its purpose being ' ' to suppress the too 
free use of ardent spirits and its kindred vices, and to en- 
courage temperance and general morality." The Rev. Dr. 
Marsh says of it that u the society did little beyond observing 
its anniversary by the preaching of a sermon, after which 



156 THE WHITE ANGEL 

preacher and hearers would repair to tables richly laden with 
wine. It was therefore without efficacy in rooting out the 
evil." 

During the ten or twelve years succeeding numerous aux- 
iliaries of this society were organized in Massachusetts and 
Maine. 

Certainly, however, rum had no reason ' ' to tremble on its 
throne" in consequence of' the existence of these associa- 
tions. It would have been difficult to express their dissent 
from the sin of intoxication in milder terms. Yet, accord- 
ing to Mr. Gough, the members of the original society were 
brutally treated, their cattle being hamstrung and their 
homes burned. It is not surprising that the rage for liquor 
steadily increased in the presence of a public feeling so 
strong as this. Not until the first quarter of the century 
was fully rounded was the voice of reform heard with that 
unmistakable ring which still sounds in its tones. 

EARLY TEMPERANCE WORK IN THE CHURCHES. 

The churches had not been idle during the period here 
covered. In 1797 a conference of the Methodist Church in 
Virginia resolved : ' * That we, the members of this Con- 
ference, do pledge our honor, as well as our word as Chris- 
tians, not only to abandon the use of ardent spirits ourselves, 
except as a medicine, but also to use our influence to induce 
others to do the same." 

About the same time the Presbyterian Synod of Pennsyl- 
vania passed similar resolutions, and also enjoined ministers 
to preach against the sin of intemperance. The Church 
Assembly, moreover, appointed a day of humiliation, fast- 
ing, and prayer ' ' in view of the awful prevalence of intem- 
perance." It was not until 1811, however, that this Church, 
stirred thereto by Dr. Rush's efforts, first took an attitude 
of open opposition to the prevailing evil. The committee 



OF THE WORLD. I 57 

appointed by the Assembly of that year made a report in 
1812, in which it earnestly and ably pointed out "the sin 
and mischief of intemperate drinking," and urged all min- 
isters to warn their hearers against intemperance and ' ' all 
those habits and indulgences which may have a tendency to 
produce it." 

The prevalent and mischievous custom of treating, which 
has been such a powerful agent in the making of drunkards, 
was strongly protested against by the Church in 1818. This 
protest was specially directed to the ' ' ministers, elders, and 
deacons in the Presbyterian Church," which seems to indi- 
cate that ' ' treating ' ' was a common practice among them. 
From this time forward the Church placed itself squarely in 
opposition to intemperance in all its forms, recommended 
its ministers to do their utmost ' ' to suppress this abominable 
vice, ' ' and became active and earnest in its efforts for ' ' the 
utter extermination of the traffic in intoxicating liquors as a 
beverage. ' ' 

The Methodist Church, as we have seen, had seriously 
declined from its original standard of temperance by 1812, 
but the resolution then defeated was passed in 1816 on motion 
of the Rev. James Axley, a most ardent prohibitionist. His 
resolution declared that "no preacher shall distill or retail 
spirituous liquors without forfeiting his license. ' ' An attempt 
was made in 1820 to repeal this resolution, but without suc- 
cess, though a similar resolution in relation to distilling by 
members of the Church was defeated. 

From 18 1 6 forward the temperance sentiment in the 
Church grew decided. little was said at this period about 
wine and malt liquors, but a firm stand was made against 
the sale and use of ardent spirits. In the words of Lyman 
Beecher, ' ' We did not then say a word about wine, because 
we thought it was best in this sudden onset to take that 
which was most prevalent and deadly, and that it was as 



158 THE WHITE ANGEL 

much as would be safe to take hold of one such dragon by 
the horns without tackling another. But in ourselves we 
resolved to inhibit wine, and in our families we generally 
did." 

The Society of Friends has never failed to place itself 
distinctly and decidedly on record against the practice of 
drinking. The New England Yearly Meeting protested 
against the excessive use of spirituous liquors in 1784, and 
four years afterward threatened to disclaim any of its 
members who persisted in liquor-selling. The Philadel- 
phia Meeting took similar measures at the same period, 
and in 1806 queried, u Are Friends careful to discourage the 
unnecessary distillation or use of spirituous liquors?" 

Similar steps were taken by the New York Yearly Meet- 
ing. In 1792 the reports showed " all members clear of the 
traffic except four." Monthly meetings were counselled to 
deal tenderly with those still in the business, but ' ' if not 
brought. to such a sense of their misconduct as to refrain 
from that traffic, to disown them." 

These measures were directed against dealing in ardent 
spirits, and little is said about their use as a beverage during 
the period under consideration. 

No other Church appears to have taken any decided steps 
in favor of the temperance reform prior to 1825, w ^ tn tne 
exception of the sect known as the Tunkers, which since 
1778 had sternly opposed intemperance among its members; 
and the Congregationalists, who earnestly favored the move- 
ment.' In 1810 the Rev. Heman Humphrey, pastor of a 
church at Fairfield, Connecticut, afterward for twenty-two 
years president of Amherst College, preached six sermons 
against intemperance, probably the first series of sermons on 
that, subject ever delivered. The Rev. Calvin Chapin of 
Rocky Hill, Connecticut, in 181 2, advocated total absti- 
nence from spirituous liquors as the only cure for intern- 



OF THE WORLD. I 59 

perance. During the same period layman Beecher, who 
had already advocated temperance in the pulpit, became 
an earnest and prominent adherent of the cause. A report 
made by a committee on the evils of intemperance, pre- 
sented to the General Association of the Congregational 
churches of Connecticut in 1812, stated that "they did not 
perceive that anything could be done." "When I heard 
this, ' ' says the doctor, k ' the blood started through my heart, 
and I arose instanter and moved that another committee be 
appointed." Of this committee he was made the chairman, 
and the next day he presented an elaborate report, of which 
he says, "It was the most important paper I ever wrote in 
my life." He remarks that he was "not only headstrong 
but heartstrong." In 1813 he preached a famous sermon on 
"A Reformation in Morals Practicable and Indispensable," 
but his great service to the cause of temperance was by his 
celebrated "Six Sermons" delivered in 1825, °f which we 
shall speak further in the next chapter. 

Major C. B. Cotton tells a story which shows in the strong- 
est light the evils of ministerial drinking, which prevailed 
to some extent even after the inception of the temperance 
reform : 

" At an ecclesiastical convention a few years ago a discus- 
sion on temperance brought up the wine question. A part 
of the clergy advocated its entire disuse, and a part took the 
other side. At length an influential clergyman rose and 
made a vehement argument in favor of wine, denouncing 
the radical reformers for attempting to banish this token of 
hospitality from use. When he had resumed his seat a lay- 
man, trembling with emotion, rose and asked if it was al- 
lowed for him to speak. 

K ' The chairman having signified that he would be heard, 
he said : ' Mr. Moderator, it is not my purpose in rising to 
answer the argument you have just listened to. My object 



i6o 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



is more humble, and I hope more practicable. I once knew 
a father in moderate circumstances who was at much incon- 
venience to educate a beloved son at college. His son be- 
came dissipated through the evil influence of tempters among 




College Temptations. 



his college companions, but after he had graduated and re- 
turned to his father the influence of home acting upon a gen- 
erous nature actually reformed him. His father was over- 
joyed at the prospect that his cherished hope of other days 
might still be realized. 

" ' Several years passed, when the young man, having com- 
pleted his studies and about to leave his father for the pur- 
pose of establishing himself in business, was invited to dine 
with a neighboring clergyman distinguished for his hospi- 
tality and social qualities. At this dinner wine was intro- 
duced and offered to the young man and refused, pressed 
upon him, and again firmly refused. This was repeated, 
and the young man was ridiculed for his singular abstinence. 
He was strong enough to overcome appetite, but could not 



OF THE WORLD. l6l 

withstand ridicule. He drank and fell, and from that mo- 
ment became a confirmed drunkard, and not long since filled 
a drunkard's grave. Mr. Moderator,' continued the old man, 
with streaming eyes, ' I am that father, and it was at the 
table of the clergyman who has just taken his seat that 
this token of hospitality ruined the son I shall never cease 
to mourn.' " 

To the above we may add another anecdote, bearing upon 
the state of affairs in the churches at a somewhat later date. 
A prominent member of a church, who met his pastor as he 
was about to enter the pulpit, whispered in his ear: 

' ' Be very careful not to say anything in your sermon 
about the manufacture, sale, and use of intoxicating drinks, 
for Mr. — — , the distiller, who contributes largely to the 
support of our church, I see is present." 

"Well," asked the clergyman, "what shall I preach 
about, if I may not speak of such an evil?" 

"Why," replied the member, "preach about anything — 
anything else; preach about the Mormons; there is not a 
single Mormon in our congregation." 
11 






CHAPTER VII. 

THE AGITATION FOR TOTAL ABSTINENCE. 

^HE history of the second stage in the temperance move- 
A ment may be held to properly begin with Dr. Beecher' s 
famous " Six Sermons on Intemperance" — sermons which 
are still accepted classics of the cause. No more masterly 
picture of the evils of drunkenness has ever been made, and 
their influence was at once vigorous and wide-spread. So 
far the reformers had rather played with the enemy than 
decidedly opposed it. Nothing could be hurt that was dealt 
with so tenderly. Yet, on the other hand, intemperance 
had become such a power in the land that it seemed not 
safe to handle it too roughly. It appeared necessary to fire 
blank cartridges for a while, before the time would be ripe 
for the Napoleon of reform to discharge his shotted guns 
into the enemy's camp. Beecher was the Napoleon, and 
his six sermons the shotted guns. From the day of their 
delivery the advocates of temperance ceased to deal with 
drunkenness as if they were afraid of it. Immediately 
afterward the stand was taken which has been to this day 
maintained — that of total abstinence. 

It was a drunken ordination incident which first woke up 
Dr. Beecher to the immense advances of intemperance, and 
roused him to an ardent crusade against the evil. He him- 
self, in his autobiography, tells us how he became specially 
aroused to the delivery of these sermons. He was then sta- 
tioned at Litchfield, Connecticut. 
162 



OF THE WORLD. I 65 

' ' There was a neighborhood, ' ' he said, ' ' about four miles 
out where I used to preach on Sabbath afternoons and have 
a lecture in the week. The first time I went was during a 

revival of religion, in which Mr. and his wife became 

pious. .... His house was my home when I went out there 

to preach and spend the night The meetings about this 

time had been discontinued for some cause, and on setting 
them up again I preached at his house as usual, but it did 
not go as it used to, and the second time the same. After 
the lecture I went outdoors a few moments, and when I 
came in found he was abed and his wife was weeping. I 
felt a shock of presentiment. I drew up my chair by her 
side and said, 'What is the matter?' — 'Oh, matter enough/ 
said she. — ' Who is it? Is it your father?' I knew he had 
some tendencies that way. She told me it was her husband 
too. — ' Is it possible? is it possible?' — ' Yes, it is possible.* 

( ' I thought to myself as I rode home, ' It is now or never. 
I must go about it immediately, or there is no chance of their 
salvation.' These sermons I had projected early. They were 
laid by to be finished when I could get time. I knew where 
they were. I had laid them up. So I began the next Sab- 
bath, and continued as fast as I could write them — one every 
Sabbath, I think. I wrote under such a power of feeling as 
never before or since. They took hold of the whole congre- 
gation. Sabbath after Sabbath the interest grew, and be- 
came the most absorbing thing ever heard of before — a 
wonder of weekly conversation and interest, and, when I 
got through, of eulogy. All the old farmers that brought 
in wood to sell, and used to set up their cartwhips at the 
groggery, talked about it, and said many of them would 
never drink again. 

"The father was rescued, but the son was carried away. 
.... His mother was an habitual drinker, and the thirst 
was in his constitution. He was a retailer, and so became 



I 64 THE WHITE ANGEL 

bound hand and foot. He reformed for a season, but went 
back." 

These sermons, on the l ' Nature, Occasion, Signs, Evils, 
and Remedy of Intemperance, ' ' have been published in nu- 
merous editions and translated into many languages. ' Their 




Old Farmers at the Groggery. 



influence has been felt around the world, and they have very 
probably been read by more persons than any other temper- 
ance document ever issued. 

We may quote a passage from one of the temperance ser- 
mons of this "heartstrong orator" as an example of his 
earnestness and power: 

" Our vices are digging the grave of our liberties, and 



OF THE WORLD. 1 65 

preparing to entomb our glory Our institutions, civil 

and religious, have outlived that domestic discipline and 
official vigilance in magistrates which render obedience easy 
and habitual. Drunkards reel through the streets day after 
day and year after year with entire impunity. Profane swear- 
ing is heard, even by magistrates, as though they heard it 
not Truly we do stand on the confines of destruc- 
tion : we are becoming another people Can we law- 
fully amass property by a course of trade which fills the laud 
with beggars, and widows, and orphans, and crimes — which 
peoples the graveyard with premature mortality, and the 
world of woe with its victims of despair? 

"Could all the forms of evil produced in the land by 
intemperance come upon us in one horrid array, it would 
appall the nation, and put an end to the traffic in ardent 
spirits. If in every dwelling built by blood the stone from 
the walls should utter all the cries which the bloody traffic 
extorts, and the beam out of the timber should echo them 
back, who would build such a house? What if in every 
part of the dwelling, from the cellar upward, through all 
the halls and chambers, babblings and contentions, and 
voices, and groans, and shrieks, and wailings were heard 
day and night ? . . . . Oh ! were the sky over our heads one 
great whispering-gallery, bringing down about us all the 
lamentation and woe which intemperance creates, and the 
firm earth one sonorous medium of sound, bringing up 
around us from beneath the wailing of the damned whom 
the commerce in ardent spirits had sent thither, these tre- 
mendous realities, assailing our sense, would invigorate our 
conscience and give decision to our purpose of reformation. 

" But these evils are as real as if the stone did cry out 

from the wall and the beam did answer it They are 

as real as if the sky over our heads collected and brought 
down about us all the notes of sorrow in the land, and the 



1 66 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



firm earth should open a passage for the waitings of despair 
to come up from beneath." 

Appeals like this could not fail to give new earnestness to 
the temperance movement, and rouse the land as it had never 
been roused before. 

Could inebriates be made to feel the full horror of the sin 




Midnight Voices of Doom. 



of intemperance as here so thrillingly depicted, to hear the 
wails of those who suffer from their criminal indulgence 
thus centring from all the land upon their ears, should 



OF THE WORLD. I 67 

we not have them to start from their beds in the dead of 
night, cast the symbol of their sin in terror to the floor, and 
gaze with startled and bloodshot eyes into that shadow-land 
of woe and misery from which these awful tones of accusa- 
tion come as the words of doom came to Belshazzar in the 
midst of his power and revelry? 

We have now reached the period in which the temperance 
reformation was suddenly to become a power in the land. 
Its earlier advocates, as we have seen, had confined their 
efforts to an endeavor to check the immoderate use of ardent 
spirits, leaving men free to drink spirits in moderation and 
as much wine and beer as they chose. Indeed, it was the 
general belief of the period that liquor was necessary to 
health, brain-power, and social enjoyment. Those who did 
not drink were looked upon as weaklings, incompetent to 
stand hard work or extremes of weather. A barn could not 
be raised without a keg nor a meeting-house without a bar- 
rel of rum — not to support the timbers, but apparently to 
support the timber-lifters. The organization of one of the 
early societies, Dr. Dorchester tells us, took place in a 
tavern, and the officers before leaving treated at the bar. 
The president filled his glass nearly full of strong liquor, 
and tossed it off with the following remark : ' ' Now, brethren, 
let us show to the world that we can drink in moderation.' ' 

Yet feeble and inconsequential as seem these efforts, they 
were probably of more use, considering the general prev- 
alence of intemperance, than radical measures would have 
been. They gained a growing body of adherents, and taught 
the public to look with some degree of favor upon a move- 
ment to which even the drunkard could not well object. 
As Dr. Beecher says, ' ' We took the only ground we could 
at that time without having all our efforts cover us with 
shame. We attacked first what we met first, and that was 
the van of the enemy's power." 



1 68 THE WHITE ANGEL 

The pioneers, in and out of the Church, had done their 
work, and the time had come for a more radical step of 
progress. The land in front had been cleared to some extent 
of its obstacles, and a road opened for an ' ' advance in force. n 
A decided movement was urgently needed, for rum was still 
lord of the land and the Church. As late as 1825, at th e 
installation of Dr. Leonard Bacon in the First Congrega- 
tionalist Church of New Haven, the society furnished free 
drinks to all who cared to order them at the hotel bar. The 
Rev. Dr. Ide of Medway, Massachusetts, who preached in 
favor of abstinence, one morning found a barrel of rum on 
his church steps as a gentle hint from his congregation that 
rum and religion were foster-brothers, and that he had better 
find some more acceptable subject for his discourses. In 
1822 it was considered a u strange doctrine n when Dr. 
Justin Edwards declared that entire abstinence from dis- 
tilled spirits was the only method to keep men from be- 
coming drunkards. 

The last-named speaker published in 1825 a temperance 
tract called "The Well-conducted Farm." It had a wide 
circulation, and was of much use in preparing the country 
for the decided measure about to be taken at the instance 
of its author. 

TOTAL ABSTINENCE FROM ARDENT SPIRITS. 

On the 10th of January, 1826, a few friends of temper- 
ance, who had come together at the invitation of Dr. Justin 
Edwards, met in Boston to consider the vital question, 
' ' What shall be done to banish the enemy from the United 
States?" The result of their deliberations was the forma- 
tion of a society whose members pledged themselves to total 
abstinence from ardent spirits. 

A committee was appointed to prepare a constitution, and 
the meeting adjourned. On February 13th a second meet- 



OF THE WORLD. 1 69 

ing took place, at which the constitution was presented, ap- 
proved, and adopted. The following gentlemen were elected 
officers: Hon. Marcus Morton, President ; Hon. Samuel 
Hubbard, Vice-President; William Ropes, Treasurer; John 
Tappan, Auditor; Rev. Leonard Woods, Rev. Justin Ed- 
wards, John Tappan, Hon. George Odiorne, and S. V. S. 
Wilder, Executive Committee. 

Thus came into existence the "American Temperance 
Society," whose members were required to subscribe to the 
following: "I pledge myself to an entire abstinence from 
the use of ardent spirits, except when prescribed by a tem- 
perate physician in case of sickness." 

That this pledge was like a firebrand thrown into the 
camp of the enemy may well be said. It will be observed 
that there was no restriction of the members from the fullest 
indulgence in wine, beer, or cider, yet it was enough to 
rouse the adherents of the liquor cause to a fury of pas- 
sion. Members of the old societies had been annoyed and 
insulted. Those of the new organization were more than 
once in danger of their lives. Like Belshazzar of old, over 
whom destruction impended when his power seemed great- 
est and his debauchery was most extreme, Rum, the auto- 
crat, beheld in letters of fire on the wall, the Mene, Mene, 
Tekel, Upharsin, of the spirit of reform, and rose in terror 
to repel the impending ruin. 

The American Temperance Society meant work. It was 
no part of its purpose to merely pledge its members not to 
drink, and then settle down into respectable uselessness. It 
began the battle against rum by sending out a skilled advo- 
cate to lecture, form branch societies, and advance the cause 
of temperance by every means in his power. Eight thou- 
sand dollars were subscribed for this purpose, and the Rev. 
Dr. Hewitt was engaged as the pioneer lecturer. 

Temperance rose fairly to its feet when this active advo- 



170 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



cate took the field. He travelled through much of New 
England and the Middle States, everywhere speaking, stir- 
ring up the people, and forming branch societies. The coun- 
try, indeed, seemed ripe for the work. During the first year 
of the life of the society there were organized two hundred 




The Writing on the Wall. 



and twenty-two branches, while the total-abstinence pledge 
gained thirty thousand signers. 

This progress was something marvellous. Many distil- 
leries closed for want of business, while several shipowners 
sent their vessels to sea pledged to temperance. During the 
next two years the good work went on at an advancing ratio. 



OF THE WORLD. 171 

By the end of 1829 there existed in the country one thousand 
temperance societies, while a hundred thousand persons had 
signed the pledge. Fifty distilleries had closed and four 
hundred merchants given up the sale of liquor. 

In 1826 a new and powerful element had been brought to 
the aid of the cause in the establishment of a newspaper 
specially devoted to temperance. This was the National 
Philanthropist, published in Boston by the Rev. William 
Collier. Other papers were started in 1828, and by an early 
date in 1830 eight temperance papers were in existence. 

Great as had been the progress of the temperance cause 
up to 1830, it moved forward with an increasing rapidity 
during the immediately succeeding years. By the begin- 
ning of the year 1833 more than five thousand societies are 
said to have been organized, with a membership of one and 
a quarter millions of persons, ten thousand of whom had 
been confirmed drunkards. Four thousand distilleries had 
been forced to close their doors, this including more than 
half of all those in the State of New York. The sale of dis- 
tilled spirits had been given up by six thousand dealers, while 
on more than four thousand vessels liquor had ceased to be 
used. 

This was certainly a remarkable and highly gratifying 
outcome of seven years' unfoldment of a new reform. It 
could not have been accomplished but 'for the fact that the 
evil had grown so great as to be patent to every eye, and the 
absolute need of a change had only to be called to public 
attention to be everywhere acknowledged. 

The improvement which took place was not confined to 
the decrease of intoxication. General business of every sort 
outside of the manufacture and sale of rum and whiskey 
grew more prosperous, while the public morals showed a 
decided advancement. 

General L,ewis Cass of Michigan entered the temperance 



172 THE WHITE ANGEL 

ranks in 1829, declaring that he had always been a cold- 
water man, and that in the hardships and the severe weather 
to which he had been exposed in the war with Great Britain 
total abstinence had stood by him nobly. Three years later, 
while Secretary of War, he issued an order ■ ' forbidding the 
introduction of ardent spirits into any fort, camp, or garri- 
son in the United States, and prohibiting their sale by any 
sutler to the troops. " As a substitute for the spirit rations 
he allowed eight pounds of sugar and four pounds of coffee 
to every hundred rations. The Secretary of the Navy took 
somewhat similar steps, offering the seamen coffee, tea, sugar, 
and money as a substitute for spirits. 

The Massachusetts State Society had continued its organi- 
zation with the adoption of the new pledge, and other States 
now followed in the same line. A New York State Tem- 
perance Society was organized, mainly by the efforts of the 
Hon. Edward C. Delavan, on the 17th of January, 1828. 
On May 20th a similar society for Connecticut was formed 
at Hartford. This idea spread, so that in 1832 there were 
twenty-one State societies in existence. In New York the 
temperance sentiment had grown very strong, and in the 
rural districts the feeling in favor of total abstinence from 
all intoxicants was greatly developed. 

All over the country, indeed, the feeling in this direction 
was rapidly growing. The American Temperance Society 
had accomplished a work of extraordinary importance and 
value to the community. 

In 1832 the reform movement reached the halls of Con- 
gress. It might be imagined that even then the great 
council of the nation, made up presumably of its ablest, 
wisest, and noblest individuals, would have been free from 
the vice of intemperance, yet such an idea would rest on a 
very weak basis of fact. When an epidemic seizes on a 
land, high and low alike are subject to its attacks. Con- 



OF THE WORLD. I 73 

gressmen of the highest repute in the nation at that period 
not alone drank to excess, but dared even to appear on the 
floors of Congress in this condition, with little notice from 
the members and no condemnation from the country at large. 
We can safely say that this state of affairs has radically 
changed. 

The first temperance meeting of members of Congress was 
held in 1832, at which strong resolutions in favor of total 
abstinence from ardent spirits were passed. This meeting 
led, in 1833, to the formation of a "Congressional Temper- 
ance Society," based on the following resolution: "We, 
members of Congress and others, recognizing the principle 
of abstinence from the use of ardent spirits and from the 
traffic in it as the basis of our Union, do hereby agree to 
form ourselves into a society. ' ' It must be acknowledged, 
however, that for years afterward prominent members of 
Congress were victims of drink. 

The temperance movement we have here described has 
been represented by some as secular in its origin and prog- 
ress, instituted and carried on outside of the churches. 
Such an idea is very far from the truth. Ministers of the 
several churches were from the first its most prominent ad- 
vocates and organizers and members of its earliest societies, 
and the churches as bodies soon entered ardently into the 
work. Their organization and influence gave them a power 
much greater than could be wielded by any secular society, 
and to them was in great part due the remarkably rapid 
progress of the reform. 

The Presbyterian General Assembly, in 1832, declared 
that "the accursed thing must be removed from the camp 
of the Iyord. While professing Christians continue to ex- 
hibit the baleful example of tasting the drunkard's poison, 
or by a sacrilegious traffic to make it their employment to 
degrade and destroy their fellow-men, those that love the 



I 74 THE WHITE ANGEL 

Iyord must not keep silence, but must lift up their warning 
voice, and use all lawful efforts to remove this withering 
reproach from the house of God. ' ' 

The Methodist General Conference took a similarly de- 
cided stand; Congregational Associations advised churches 
not to accept as members persons who continued ' ' to make, 
buy, sell, or use ardent spirits as an article of drink or lux- 
ury;" and others of the churches showed a similar disposi- 
tion to condemn liquor-selling as immoral and liquor-drink- 
ing as sinful and degrading. The influence of these religious 
bodies was undoubtedly the very backbone of the temperance 
cause. 

TEETOTALISM. 

The third and most vital step in the history of temperance 
was yet to be made. The reform movement had begun with 
a resolution to drink spirits in moderation, then had reached 
the stage of total abstinence from ardent spirits with free- 
dom to drink wine and beer, and was now to gain the level 
of total abstinence from the whole list of intoxicating bev- 
erages. 

The necessity of such an action had become evident. The 
early temperance advocates had not only permitted the use 
of wine, beer, and cider, but even recommended them as a 
substitute for ardent spirits. Some of them went so far as 
to build a brewery in Boston, with the idea of replacing rum 
with beer. * At the annual meetings of the Massachusetts 
Society wine was freely used. Yet it was growing daily 
more apparent that half-measures would not do the work. 

* Dr. Marsh says : " In the early stage of the temperance reform some friends 
of the cause of temperance thought best to establish a brewery to furnish men who 
would abstain from ardent spirits with beer. They did so, and soon failed, sinking 
some $20,000 in the business. How happened it ? Why, they were honest men, 
and made honest ale, whereas other brewers, using drugs and poisons, were able 
to undersell them, and compelled them to sell at such a price that they could not 
sustain the business." 



OF THE WORLD. I 75 

Wine and beer were quite capable of producing intoxica- 
tion, and served as easy stepping-stones to the use of the 
more potent intoxicants. It had, moreover, been demonstra- 
ted, said the American Temperance Union in 1838, that the 
' ' yeomanry of the country would not give up their rum and 
whiskey while temperance men in the higher ranks drank 
wine," and that "the mass of young men in the higher walks 
of life — in colleges, in counting-houses, in the learned pro- 
fessions — who became drunkards became so on wine, and 
not on distilled spirits." It had thus quickly become evi- 
dent that ' ' each class of the community must sacrifice its 
own intoxicating beverage ' ' for the general good. 

The honor of originating the total-abstinence movement- 
is usually given to a temperance society of Preston, Eng- 
land, in 1833, and a story is told that ascribes it to Dickey 
Turner, a stuttering farmer. The old pledge of abstinence 
from ardent spirits did not satisfy this thoroughgoing yeo- 
man, and on taking the pen to. sign the pledge he declared, 
in his broad and stammering dialect, "I'll have nowt to do* 
wi' this botheration moderation pledge. I'll be right down 
t-tee- total forever. ' ' 

The word "teetotal" took the fancy of the multitude; it 
spread with great rapidity throughout the temperance ranks, 
and quickly became the accepted term for entire abstinence 
from intoxicating drinks. 

Teetotalism, however, as a system appears to have had its 
origin in this country. Mr. H. K. Carroll, in his paper on 
Total Abstinence during the Century, credits it to the Rev. 
Joel Jewell who in 1826, when joining a temperance society 
at Hector, N. Y. , required that abstinence from wine should 
be included in the pledge. The society immediately decided 
to have two pledges — the old pledge and one that required 
total abstinence. 

Mr. Jewell was afterward made secretary of the society, 



176 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



and in preparing the roll of members affixed to their names 
the letters O. P. or T., according to the particular pledge 
they had signed. It is claimed that the word "teetotal" 
arose from this, but the evidence does not seem very conclu- 
sive, and there is little question that the honor, such as it 
is, belongs to the stuttering tongue and radical soul of 
Dickey Turner. 




Dickey Turner's Pledge. 

It is very likely that other total-abstinence societies fol- 
lowed that of Hector. Of the State societies, that of Penn- 
sylvania was the first to advocate the new principle. Its 
report for 1831 says: " In discouraging the habitual use of 
fermented liquors we act, it is believed, in accordance with 



OF THE WORLD. 1 77 

the principles of genuine philanthropy, not less than of 

sound political economy Fermented liquors of all 

kinds have had their full share in the work of destruction 
and debasement. Much of what has been said of wine will 
apply to other fermented liquors, such as barley-wine, or 
beer, and apple-wine, or cider. All of them contain alco- 
hol; all are capable of causing drunkenness and a great 
variety of diseases." 

Two years later the Mississippi State Society took similar 
action. Strong efforts were made by the total-abstinence 
members of the New York State Society to commit it to 
the same measure, but for several years without success. 
Many of the members were afraid of the opposition which 
such a resolution would excite, and deemed it the part of 
wisdom to temporize. Even such a staunch reformer as 
Gerritt Smith hoped that no such action would be taken, 
believing it to be injudicious in the prevailing state of pub- 
lic sentiment. 

Yet the tefhper of the State Society soon showed him. that 
in the end total abstinence must prevail. The rural popula- 
tion, indeed, was everywhere opposed to wine-drinking by 
members of temperance societies, its chief strength being 
in the cities. Mr. Smith states that though he had ceased 
drinking liquors of any kind, it had been difficult for him 
to defy the custom of fashionable society and refuse even 
to raise the glass to his lips. 

"The confession may be surprising," he said, "that in 

no instances in my life did I ever have to summon so much 

moral courage as when I had at last succeeded in quarrelling 

the wine-decanter away from my table; and as again when, 

with still greater struggles, I was but just able to compass 

the resolution that under all conceivable circumstances, and 

even when I should have to bear up the singularity of my 

abstinence against the rebuking example of every great and 
12 



I J 8 THE WHITE ANGEL 

good man about me, I would nevertheless, for conscience* 
sake, say No to all invitations to drink wine." 

In these days it would require no moral courage to make 
such a stand, and it is difficult for us to picture to our minds 
a state of society when such conditions existed. The change, 
indeed, came rapidly. At the beginning of 1834, Mr. Smith 
was able to say that it was then ' ' comparatively easy for a 
person to abandon the use of wine, since he would be sus- 
tained by multitudes of the best members of society." 

It had by that time become very apparent to him what 
action the State Society would take. The sentiment against 
wine among the country delegates had grown very strong, 
and, to quote his words, in case the convention should in- 
dorse the views of the delegates from the cities and other 
communities where wine-drinking was yet fashionable, the 
" democracy of the temperance society of the State" would 
be aroused, and at the next annual meeting "there will be 
such a thundering condemnation of wine-drinking as will 
amaze those who have studied public opinion on this 
question in the circles of fashion only." 

In spite of vigorous opposition the resolution which had 
been offered in 1833 was passed: u Resolved, That those per- 
sons who abstain from intoxicating liquor of every kind pre- 
sent a consistent and efficacious example, which this con- 
vention would warmly commend to the imitation of every 
friend of temperance." 

The convention of the succeeding year ordered its news- 
paper, The Temperance Advocate, to adopt as its future 
standard l ' total abstinence from all that can intoxicate. ' ' 
This action was sustained by the sentiment of the State. 

The tree planted by the American Temperance Society in 
1826 had borne abundant fruit. In less than ten years a 
remarkable change had come upon the feeling of the coun- 
try in regard to the use of intoxicating liquor. From being 



OF THE WORLD. 



179 



accepted by the great mass of the community in 1825 as a 
healthful beverage, which was almost as necessary as daily 
food, its use being opposed only by a few ' ' fanatics, ' ' and its 
abuse so enormous that drunkenness had never been more 
common in the history of the world, it had become in 1835 




Following the Wine-drinkers' Example. 

odious to a large body of the most respectable citizens, widely 
condemned as unnecessary, poisonous, and immoral, its use 
opposed by a multitude of ardent temperance advocates and 
thousands of temperance societies, and its abuse so dimin- 
ished that the great United States seemed for the first time 
in many years to be able to draw a sober breath. Verily, 
the work of the " fanatics " had been thorough and far- 
reaching. Never had a reform movement made greater 



I So THE WHITE ANGEL 

progress in so short a period of time, and never had the 
need of reform been so evident and absolute. 

In 1833 the first general temperance convention was held. 
It was called by the American Temperance Society, and 
brought together four hundred delegates from twenty-one 
States, who niet in Philadelphia in May of that year. Steps 
were taken to organize a Temperance Union for the whole 
country, and a long series of resolutions was adopted. Total 
abstinence failed to gain an indorsement, but the following 
resolution was passed: "The vital interests and complete 
success of the temperance cause demand that in all the 
efforts of the friends of that cause against the use of ardent 
spirits no substitute except pure water be recommended as 
a drink. " 

During the succeeding three years the total-abstinence 
sentiment grew rapidly, and by the date of the second 
National Convention, in 1836, the advocates of temperance 
were ready to deal with it more decidedly. Only a few years 
before it had been remarked by Dr. Hitchcock, in his lec- 
tures on hygiene at Amherst College, " I should consider it 
extremely injudicious, and even Quixotic, for any temperance 
society to require total abstinence from the milder stimu- 
lants. ' ' Yet within ten years afterward this Quixotic mea- 
sure had been adopted by the majority of the temperance 
societies of the country, with an increase instead of a loss 
of membership and influence. 

The Massachusetts societies had followed in 1835 those 
of New York in adopting the principle. The American 
Temperance Society had also advanced to the same stand- 
ard. On August 4, 1836, the second National Convention 
met at Saratoga, N. Y., with an attendance of nearly three 
hundred and fifty delegates. Among its resolutions was one 
approving the action of the societies which had adopted total 
abstinence, and ' ' maintaining its propriety and necessity. ' ' 



OF THE WORLD. l8l 

This action of the convention met with quick and favor- 
able response throughout the Union. Several State and many 
local societies at once ratified it. The States of Maryland, 
Texas, and Iowa and the Territory of Wisconsin in 1839; Penn- 
sylvania in 1840;, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, and 
Virginia in 1842, — put their seal of approval to this resolu- 
tion. Most of the local societies had adopted it with less 
delay, and by 1839 the total-abstinence pledge had almost 
driven out of sight the old ' ' ardent-spirits ' ' pledge. 

The effects of this movement were different from what 
had been predicted. Many had imagined that it would vir- 
tually put an end to the temperance reform, by driving from 
its ranks the vast host Who were in favor of moderate indul- 
gence. Yet nothing of the kind came to pass. The cause 
of temperance progressed with the same rapidity as before. 
In 1843, se ven years after the passage of the Saratoga total- 
abstinence resolution, according to the estimate of the Hon. 
E. C. Delavan there were four million total abstainers in the 
United States. 

As the original pronunciamento against ardent spirits had 
ruined the market and closed the doors of thousands of dis- 
tilleries throughout the country, so this more radical mea- 
sure produced a similar effect on the manufacture of fer- 
mented drinks. "The cider-mill," it is said in the 1841 
report of the American Temperance Union, ' ' has vanished 
from the premises of almost every reputable New England 
farmer, and the choicest wines are, by thousands and tens 
of thousands who once delighted in them, now classed with 
the ' drink of the drunkard. ' ' ' 

The Congressional Temperance Society, of which we have 
already spoken, became in 1842 the Congressional Total- 
Abstinence Society, and resolved as follows : ' ' That as in- 
toxicating drinks are at variance with the laws of our physi- 
cal and moral being, and justly come into condemnation as 



1 82 THE WHITE ANGEL 

sources of intemperance, we feel it our duty to pledge our- 
selves to entire abstinence from them as a beverage, nor can 
any law of hospitality and fashion make it incumbent on us 
to provide them for others. ' ' 

In 1834, Congress passed an act "To regulate trade and 
intercourse with the Indian tribes and preserve peace on 
the frontiers," which stringently prohibited the introduction 
into the Indian country or sale or gift to Indians of any 
intoxicating liquor, either spirits or wine. This was the first 
decided step taken to preserve the Indians from the fatal 
effects of the rum-bottle, which had already proved so de- 
structive to their tribes. Yet it is to be feared that this and 
subsequent acts have not been very efficacious in restraining 
lawless frontiersmen from supplying the savages with the 
liquid poison which their untutored souls so ardently crave. 

In this connection it may be well to quote from the appeal 
of Iyittle Turtle, the celebrated Miami chief, who had for 
years endeavored to prevent the sale of liquor to his tribe. 
It was delivered at a meeting of the Society of Friends, and 
undoubtedly expressed the sentiment of many of the wiser 
chiefs : 

" My white brothers, many of your red brothers in the West 
have long since discovered and now deeply lament the great 
evil of drunkenness. It has been many years since it was 
first introduced amongst us by our white brothers. Indians 
do not know how to make strong drink. If it be not shortly 
stopped among our people, it will be our ruin. We are now, 
in consequence of it, a miserable people 

' * Brothers, we want you to send to our great father, the 
President of the United States, and let him know our de- 
plorable situation, that the bad ones among our white 
brothers may be stopped from selling whiskey to the Indians. 
Could you, my brothers, see the evil of this barbarous prac- 
tice, you would pity the poor Indians. 



OF THE WORLD. 



183 



" Brothers, when a white man trading in our country 
meets an Indian he asks him the first time, ' Take a drink ?' 
— He says, ' No. ' He asks him a second time, ' ' Take a drink ? 
Good whiskey. ' — He says, 'No.' — He asks the third time, 
'Take a drink? No hurt you;' he takes a little, then he 




The Trader and the Indian. 

wants more, and then more. Then the trader tells him he 
must buy. He then offers his gun. The white man takes 
it. Next his skins; white man takes them. He at last offers 
his shirt; white man takes it. 

1 ' When he gets sober he begins to inquire, ' Where is my 
gun?' — He is told, ' You sold it for whiskey.' — ' Where are 
my skins?' — 'You sold them for whiskey.' — 'Where is my 



184 THE WHITE ANGEL 

shirt?' — 'You sold it for whiskey.' — Now, my white broth- 
ers, imagine to yourselves the deplorable situation of that 
man, who has a wife and children at home dependent on him 
and in a starving condition, when he himself is without a 
'shirt'" 

This appeal was sent by the Quakers to President Jeffer- 
son, who transmitted it to the governor of Ohio. It resulted 
in the passage of an excellent law, which is still in force in 
that State. 

There is another story with an Indian for its hero, which 
is of so striking a character that it may fitly follow that just 
given. It is told by the celebrated John Trumbull in his 
autobiography. During his boyhood his father, Governor 
Trumbull of Connecticut, resided near a small reservation 
of the once great tribe of Mohegans. Among the sachems, 
descendants of the celebrated Uncas, was an Indian named 
Zachary, an excellent hunter, but as drunken and worthless 
a savage as ever lived. By the death of the former sachem 
the government of the tribe came to him. 

u In this moment the better genius of Zachary resumed 
its sway, and he reflected seriously : ' How can such a drunken 
wretch as I am aspire to be the chief of this honorable race ? 
What will my people say, and how shall the shades of my 
noble ancestors look down indignant upon such a base suc- 
cessor? Can I succeed to the great Uncas? I will drink 
no more.' He solemnly resolved never again to taste any 
drink but water, and he kept his resolution." 

Zachary, as chief of the tribe, found it necessary to occa- 
sionally visit the governor, with whom he dined on such 
occasions. Trumbull goes on to say: 

"One day the mischievous thought struck me to try the 
sincerity of the old man's temperance. The family were all 
seated at dinner, and there was an excellent home-brewed 
ale on the table. I thus addressed the old chief: 'Zachary, 



OF THE WORLD. 1 85 

this beer is excellent; will you not taste it?' The old man 
dropped his knife and leaned forward with a stern intensity 
of expression ; his black eyes, sparkling with angry indigna- 
tion, were fixed on me. 'John,' said he, 'yon don't know 
what you are doing. You are serving the devil, boy! Do 
you know that I am an Indian ? I tell you that I am, and 
that if I should but taste your beer I could never stop until 
I got to rum and became again the same drunken, contempt- 
ible wretch your father remembers me to have been. John, 
never again while you live tempt a man to break a good 
resolution. ' 

" Socrates never uttered a more valuable precept. Demos- 
thenes could not have given it in more solemn tones of elo- 
quence. I was thunderstruck. My parents were deeply 
affected. They looked at each other, at me, and at the 
venerable old Indian with deep feelings of awe and respect. 
They afterward frequently reminded me of the scene, and 
charged me never to forget it." 

Certainly no more effective total-abstinence speech was 
ever made in ten or a hundred times the number of words. 

We may quote one further incident of a different character. 
On one occasion, during the period when whiskey and wine 
were as common on the table as water is to-day, Matthew 
Newkirk of Philadelphia, a prominent temperance advocate, 
gave a supper-party to Henry Clay, one of his intimate friends. 
A large company of the principal men of the city were in- 
vited to meet the distinguished orator and statesman. A 
splendid supper was provided, in which all the luxuries of 
the period graced the table, with the exception of wine and 
brandy. Not one drop of these fashionable beverages ap- 
peared. 

In their place Mr. Newkirk had provided a plentiful sup- 
ply of coffee, lemonade, and Fairmount water. The guests 
stared somewhat, but took the deprivation in good part, and 



1 86 THE WHITE ANGEL 

cracked many jokes about the "cold water-party." They 
drank each other's healths in coffee and lemonade with much 
amusement. 

On the next day Mr. Newkirk heard that the current 
question down town was, "Well, how do you feel after 
Newkirk' s cold-water party?" The general reply was, 
' ' I never had so little headache and woke up so bright 
after a party in my life." 

This total-abstinence entertainment to Henry Clay became 
the talk of the town, though we cannot say that it had the 
happy result of banishing the decanter from the tables of the 
aristocracy. Mr. Newkirk was ibr years thereafter the presi- 
dent of the Pennsylvania State Temperance Society. 

It may not be amiss to introduce here, as illustrative of 
the work and workers of that period, some extracts from 
the Pen Jottings of Early Temperance Reformers, by the 
Rev. Theodore L,. Cuyler. One of the pioneers of whom he 
speaks is Captain Benjamin Joy of Ludlowville, N. Y., then 
an active leader in the teetotal movement: 

"All along the Cayuga Lake he used to call the people 
together in churches and school-houses and deliver to them 
his earnest, homely appeals. Sometimes a whiskey-bottle 
was hurled at his head by ' a lewd fellow of the baser sort;' 
sometimes the harness was cut from his horse and attempts 
made to smoke out his audience by the emissaries of some 
neighboring bar-room. He rather enjoyed these evidences 
that his blows on the tough hide of King Alcohol were tell- 
ing, and the fires of persecution warmed him up to his noble 
work. 

"The first congregation in which I ever tried my 'pren- 
tice hand at preaching was in the Wyoming Valley, on the 
banks of the Susquehanna. In the little church — near the 
battlefield — every Sunday afternoon was a dwarfish old man 
with a humpback and a merry mouth, and a pair of old- 



OF THE WORLD. 187 

fashioned spectacles thrown np over his bald head. His 
character was as unique as his appearance. Through all 
the countryside every man, woman, and child knew Father 
Hunt or c Uncle Tommy Hunt.' His warm, generous heart 
drew everybody's love; his racy humor excited everybody's 
laughter. When on the platform he spared nobody who 
came within range of his archery, and was often quite too 
free in his personalities; there was a peculiar style in which 
lie used to pronounce the word ' liquor-seller ' that Gough 
himself could not surpass for dramatic effect. 

" His merciless exposures of the liquor-traffic sometimes 
aroused its supporters to assail him by hurling abusive epi- 
thets, and occasionally a volley of eggs which had survived 
their usefulness. On one occasion, while addressing an out- 
door assemblage in Wilkesbarre, he suspected a design to 
mob him. He did not wait for the rabble to fire the first shot. 
* I expect, ' cried the old hero, with a droll twist of his coun- 
tenance, i that some of you are going to mob me. An hun- 
dred or more of you brave and able-bodied men are going 
to attack a little, old, humpbacked minister of God like me! 
That is a rumseller's courage — an hundred to one! I hear 
that you are going to throw eggs at me. If so, pray go over 
to my farm and get good eggs, and don't perfume this atmo- 
sphere by throwing such unmarketable eggs as you will find 
at 's grogselling grocery.' 

' ' This sally of fun convulsed the crowd with laughter and 
•disarmed his opponents. The stories of Father Hunt's sharp 
retorts are legion. He delighted in a ' set-to ' with hostile 
auditors, and was always an overmatch for them. One night 
I was awaked out of sleep by his loud calling out under my 

-window: 'Brother Cuyler! I have been over to W 

and had the royalest time in the world. I gave the rum- 
sellers one of the completest drubbings they ever got. ' And 
away he rode, laughing most heartily." 



1 88 THE WHITE ANGEL 

Of one more of the early reformers we may here speak, as 
" thereby hangs a tale." The Rev. George B. Cheever was 
one of the pioneer advocates of temperance, and while quite 
a young man he published in a New England paper called 
the Salem Landmark a dream entitled " Deacon Amos 
Giles's Distillery." It was a graphic piece of work, true 
to life, and made a great sensation. Deacon Giles's rum- 
factory, with its picture of the demons ladling out the hot 
liquor, has never been surpassed as a campaign document. 

The distiller against whom the satire was evidently aimed 
prosecuted Mr. Cheever for libel. He was defended by the 
celebrated advocate Rufus Choate. Yet in spite of an elo- 
quent defence the author was convicted and sentenced to 
thirty days' imprisonment. 

The affair made the young author famous. He was 
looked upon as a martyr, the distillery was broken up, and 
the pamphlet did most effective service to the temperance 
cause. On his release from prison the undaunted culprit 
published as a companion piece " Deacon Jones's Brewery; 
or, The Distiller turned Brewer." In it he represented 
demons dancing round the boiling caldron and casting 
into it noxious and poisonous drugs. Dr. Chever has lately 
departed this life, but his weird dream of the demons and 
their nocturnal revel in the distillery will always have fame, 
and more effectively aid the temperance cause than the best 
of his subsequent labors. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

NATIONAL EFFORTS AND EVANGELISTS. 

T T 7"ITH the year 1840 began a new phase in the history 

* * of the temperance movement. It had been preceded 
in Ireland in 1838 by the missionary work of Father 
Mathew, but in America the special work of propagand- 
ise! began in 1840 with the efforts of the Washingtonian 
lecturers. 

The origin of the celebrated Washingtonian Society is 
of considerable interest. It arose from a sort of tippling 
club, composed of six persons, hard drinkers the whole of 
them, who were in the habit of meeting for drinking bouts 
at Chase's tavern, Liberty street, Baltimore. These men 
were: Wm. K. Mitchell, a tailor by trade; John F. Hoss, a 
carpenter; David Anderson, a blacksmith; George Steers, a 
blacksmith; James McCurley, a coachmaker; and Archi- 
bald Campbell, a silversmith. 

On Friday evening, April 3, 1840, their conversation hap- 
pened to turn to the subject of temperance, one of them 
having remarked that a clergyman was to deliver a temper- 
ance lecture in Baltimore that night. It was quickly deter- 
mined that four of the party should go and hear what he 
had to say, and report results. They accordingly went, 
while their two comrades waited at the tavern for their 
report. 

This proved to be favorable, and a discussion of the lec- 
ture ensued, in which the landlord took part, denouncing 

189 



190 THE WHITE ANGEL 

all such lecturers as fools and hypocrites. " Of course it is 
for your interest to cry them down, ' ' remarked one of the 
topers. Another suggested that they should form a tem- 
perance society of their own and "make Bill Mitchell 
president. ' ' After laughing and talking over the idea they 
adjourned without further action. 

Their next meeting was on the following Sunday, when 
they took a stroll, talked the matter thoroughly over, and 
fully decided on adopting the temperance project. Repair- 
ing to Chase's tavern, they began by treating all round, and 
then agreed that Mitchell should draw up a pledge, which 
the others promised to sign on the next morning. 

That night ended their life as drunkards. On Monday 
morning Mitchell wrote the following pledge : ' ' We, whose 
names are annexed, desirous of forming a society for our 
mutual benefit, and to guard against a pernicious practice 
which is injurious to our health, standing, and families, do 
pledge ourselves as gentlemen that we will not drink any 
spirituous or malt liquors, wine, or cider." 

This he took about nine o'clock to Anderson's house, 
and found that worthy sick in bed as a result of his Sunday 
potations. He rose, however, and signed the pledge. The 
signatures of the other four were then obtained, the presi- 
dent finally adding his own name. That evening they met 
at the house of one of their number and formed them- 
selves into a society, of which there were just enough of 
them to fill the offices. These were occupied by Wm. K. 
Mitchell, President; Archibald Campbell, Vice-President; 
John F. Hoss, Secretary; James McCurley, Treasurer; Geo. 
Steers and David Anderson, Standing Committee. Such 
was the humble origin of a movement which was destined 
to produce a most remarkable effect throughout the country. 

The associates agreed to meet the next night at Hoss's 
carpenter-shop, and each to bring a new member. Meetings 



OF THE WORLD. 191 

were afterward held almost nightly in which each man re- 
lated his experience as a drinker. 

These meetings soon attracted public attention. It was a 
revolt of the born subjects of King Alcohol, a reform move- 
ment of the men who most needed reform, a breaking of 
the bonds of rum by its immediate slaves without outside 
aid, and the Washington Total Abstinence Society, as the 
original members had named their association, quickly 
grew famous. 

The Baltimore reformed drunkards were soon invited to 
visit other cities and towns and relate their experience. It 
was a simple story they had to tell, with little of rhetoric, 
but much of pathos and emotional eloquence. The evil 
effects of intemperance were now for the first time told by 
the men who had most deeply experienced them, and whose 
lesson came from the heart instead of from the head. The 
effect could not be other than great and immediate. Every- 
where their meetings found large and attentive audiences, 
drunkards were converted in hosts, many of them joining 
the band of the lecturers, and Washingtonian societies sprang 
up so profusely that in time there was scarcely a place in the 
United States without its local association of reformed 
drunkards. 

This movement was outside the churches and outside the 
usual circles of oratory. It was conducted by men destitute 
of training in the graces of speech, but full of that natural 
eloquence which springs from personal experience. The 
lecturers told the story of what their lives had been under 
the influence of ardent spirits, related amusing stories of 
intoxicated men, and got off biting jokes at the expense of 
rumdrinkers and rumsellers. They imitated on the stage 
the silly behavior of the drunkard, displayed in their true 
lights the tricks and soulless avarice of the dealers in and 
makers of spirituous liquors, and did all in their power to 



192 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



make rumselling appear odious and contemptible, and rum- 
drinking foolish, ruinous, and death-dealing. 

This notable reform swept like an ocean wave over the 
country, and drunkards by tens of thousands signed the 
pledge of total abstinence. It is estimated that during the 
continuance of the excitement one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand drunkards signed the pledge, in addition to a vast 
multitude of moderate drinkers. All connection of relig- 




A Family made Happy. 



ion with the movement was avoided, it being declared that 
religious exercises were out of place in temperance meet- 
ings. It was not until after the first flush of excitement 
was over that the churches began to take an active part in 
the work, and to bring to it that element of moral serious- 
ness which it greatly lacked. 

During the period which had elapsed since the inception 
of the temperance reform very efficient work had been done 



OF THE WORLD. 1 93 

in the churches. In 1840, according to Dr. Jewitt, nine- 
teen-twentieths of the clergymen of Massachusetts were 
total abstainers, and a similar improvement appeared in 
the remainder of the country. Almost every clergyman 
in the land was an earnest advocate of temperance, but 
this influence was exerted upon people who were already 
in the main temperate. Some such movement as that of 
the Washingtonians was needed to reach the drunkard in 
his haunts, and nothing could have occurred of more imme- 
diate and essential service to the temperance cause. 

In 1830 the consumption of distilled liquors was about six 
gallons for every man, woman, and child in the country. In 
1840 it had declined to 2. 52 gallons. The decrease, of course, 
could not continue in this extreme ratio, but in 1850 the 
consumption is given at 2.23 gallons per head of popula- 
tion. Since that period the decrease has proceeded with 
much less rapidity, while the consumption of malt liquors 
lias enormously increased. 

JOHN H. W. HAWKINS. 

Of the Washingtonian orators, there are two of whom we 
must particularly speak, because of their remarkable power 
as temperance advocates and the great effects they produced. 
These were John Hawkins and John B. Gough. 

John Hawkins, a reformed drunkard of Baltimore, joined 

the Washington Society very soon after its formation. His 

talent for temperance oratory proved to be so great that he 

was quickly in demand over the whole country. For eighteen 

years his service continued, during which he spoke in all the 

principal cities and towns of the land and organized branch 

societies everywhere. At many of his meetings hundreds 

signed the pledge, a large proportion of them confirmed 

inebriates — men whose nerves were so unstrung by rum that 

they could scarcely grasp the pen to write. In many local- 
13 



194 THE WHITE ANGEL 

ities he produced wonderful effects, apparently most of all in 
Boston, in which city it was declared that ' l four-fifths of all 
the Boston drunkards had signed the temperance pledge." 

Hawkins's published memoirs tell such an affecting story 
of his personal experience as a drunkard that it will be of 
interest to repeat some portions of it. He says: "I was 
born in Baltimore on the 28th of September, 1797. After 
some years at the school of the Rev. Mr. Coxe, I was ap- 
prenticed for eight years to learn the trade of a hatter with 
a master whose place of business was a regular den of drunk- 
enness. A few days ago I found the old books of my mas- 
ter; there were the names of sixty men upon them, and we 
could recollect but one who did not go to a drunkard's 
grave. ' ' 

As a boy he served in the war of 18 12 during the British 
attack on Baltimore. He afterward joined the Methodist 
Church, but in 18 18 went West, where he fell into drunken 
and dissolute habits. 

"For six months," he says, "I had no shoes, and only 
one shirt and one pair of pantaloons. Then I was a vaga- 
bond indeed. But I returned, ragged and bloated, to my 
mother's home. It was customary in those days to let the 
young people drink with their parents, but neither they nor 
I thought of my becoming a miserable drunkard. When I 
got to the edge of my native town I was so ashamed that I 
waited till the dusk of the. evening, and then I crept along 
to the house of my mother. She dressed me up decently, 
did not upbraid me, but only said, 'John, I am afraid you 
are bloated!" 

He reformed, married in 1822, and had two children, 
Elizabeth and Hannah. For the next eighteen years his 
life was a checkered one, now sober, now drunk, but by 
1840 he had become a besotted toper. The remainder of 
his story can be best told in his own words: 




THE PRODIGAL SON'S RETURN. 



196 THE WHITE ANGEL 

" During the first two weeks of June (1840) I drank dread- 
fully, bought liquor by the gallon, and drank and drank. I 
cannot tell how I suffered ; in body everything, but in mind 
more. 

" By the fourteenth of the month — drunk all the time — I 
was a wonder to myself, astonished that I had any mind left. 
My conscience drove me to madness. I hated the darkness 
of the night, and when morning came I hated the light; I 
hated myself, hated existence; was about taking my own 
life. I asked myself, ' Can I restrain ? Is it possible ?' But 
there was no one to take me by the hand and say, You can. 
I had a pint of whiskey in my room where I lay in bed, and 
thought I would drink it, but this seemed to be a turning- 
point with me. I knew it was life or death as I decided to 
drink it or not. 

' ' My wife came up, knowing I was suffering, and asked 
me to come down to breakfast. I said I would come pres- 
ently. Then my daughter Hannah came up — my only 
friend; I always loved her the most — and she said: 

" ' Father, don't send me after whiskey to-day/ 

' ' I was tormented before ; this was agony. I could not 
stand it, so I told her to leave, and she went down stairs cry- 
ing and saying, ' Father is angry with me. ' My wife came 
up again and asked me to take some coffee. I told her I did 
not want anything of her, and covered myself up in the bed. 
Pretty soon I heard some one in the room, and peeping out 
I saw it was my daughter. 

1 ' ' Hannah, ' said I, ' I am not angry with you — and — / 
shall not drink any more. y Then we wept together. 

■ ■ I got up, went to the cupboard, and looked on my enemy, 
the whiskey-bottle, and thought, i Is it possible I can be re- 
stored ?' Several times while dressing I looked at the bottle, 
but I thought, ' I shall be lost if I yield.' 

u Poor drunkard ! there is hope for you. You cannot be 



OF THE WORLD. 



197 



worse off than I was, not more degraded, nor more of a slave 

to appetite. You can return if you will. Try it! Try it! 

" Well, I went to the society of reformed drunkards, where 

I found all my old bottle-companions. I did not tell any 



^^^saiiiai 




Hawkins and his Daughter. 



one, not even my wife, that I was going. I had got out of 
difficulty, but did not know how long I could keep out. 

u The six founders of the society were there. We had 
worked together, got drunk together, we stuck together like 
brothers; and so we do now that we are sober. 



I98 THE WHITE ANGEL 

" One of them said, 'Here's Hawkins, the regulator, the 
old bruiser,' and they clapped and laughed. But there was 
no laugh in me. I was too solemn and sober for that. 

4 ' Then they read the pledge They all looked over 

my shoulder to see me write my name. It was a great bat- 
tle. I never had such feelings before. 

" At eleven o'clock I went home. Before, when I stayed 
out late, I always went home drunk. My yard is covered 
with brick, and my wife could easily tell as I walked over it 
whether I was drunk or sober. She could even tell whether 
the gate opened drunk or sober. 

"Well, this time it opened sober, and when I entered she 
was astonished. I smiled, and she smiled; and then I told 
her quick — I could not keep it back: 

Ui I have put my name to the temperance pledge never to 
drink as long as T live.'' 

' ' It was a happy time. I cried and she cried — we couldn' t 
help it; the crying woke up my daughter, and she, too, cried 
for joy. I slept none that night; my thoughts were better 
than sleep. Next morning I went to see my mother. She 
had been praying twenty years for her drunken son. When 
she heard the good news she said, ' It is enough. Now I am 
ready to die. ' 

"Now what was I to do? My mind was blunted, my 
character gone ; I was bloated and getting old ; but men who 
had slighted me came to my help again, took me by the 
hand, encouraged me, held me up, and comforted me. 

"I'll never slight a drunkard as long as I live; he needs 
sympathy and is worthy of it. Poor and miserable as he is, 
he did not design to become a drunkard, and people have 
too long told him he cannot reform. But now we assure 
him he can reform, and we show ourselves, the Baltimore 
Washingtonians, two hundred in one year, as evidence of 
that fact." 



OF THE WORLD. 1 99 

It is not surprising that this thrilling story of a drunk- 
ard's experience, with the touching solicitude of his little 
daughter, as told with the heartfelt eloquence of the inebriate 
himself, had a wonderful effect, and, as repeated from city to 
city, brought thousands of drunkards into the temperance 
ranks. 

Of its influence we have an example well worth repeating 
in the story of the conversion of Mr. Latham, afterward an 
eloquent lecturer. Hawkins was speaking on March 23, 
1841, in the Greene Street M. E. Church, New York. His 
speech produced an extraordinary effect upon the audience. 
In its midst there was heard from the gallery of the church 
a tremulous voice, asking in pleading accents, "Can I be 
saved ? I am a poor drunkard. I would give the world if 
I were as you. Is there any hope for me?" 

4 ' Yes there is, my friend, ' ' said Hawkins with kind 
earnestness. l ' Come down and sign the pledge, and you 
will be a man. Come down, and I will meet you, and we 
will take you by the hand." 

It was a moment of thrilling interest. All eyes were on 
the two men as the poor pleading wretch came down from 
the gallery, and Mr. Hawkins met him in the body of the 
church, accompanied him to the desk, and guided his hand 
as he signed his name; and then such a shout went up as 
those walls had never, before heard. 

Mr. Hawkins said, as the poor fellow signed the pledge, 
"Is there a man that does not rejoice in this? What does 
not all this promise to him and his family, if he has one?" 
Latham himself has often told the sequel of this interest- 
ing narrative in his temperance lectures : 

11 1 lay on my bed three days, my wife sitting by and doing 
a little something, but no money and no food in the house. 
At length I took a basket and went out. I worked at beer- 
pumps. I met all my acquaintances, and all said, ' Drink a 



200 THE WHITE ANGEL 

little or you will die. ' But the words of John Hawkins were 
right before me: ' Live or die, never touch another drop;' 
and that saved me, and has saved thousands of others, and 
has saved a great many temperate men, moderate drinkers, 
from becoming drunkards." 

"The doctors said we could not be reformed — we should 
all die if we left off drinking The doctors knew noth- 
ing about it, and to prove that they did not I will mention 
that it was six months from its commencement before a 
single member of our society died, though we got to be 
very numerous." 

In Savannah, Georgia, Mr. Hawkins delivered an address 
in a Roman Catholic church with a remarkable result. The 
church was crowded, and his eloquence affected the warm- 
hearted priest as well as many of his congregation to tears. 

As soon as he had concluded, Father sprang excitedly 

to his feet, and called out to the sexton to "fasten every 
door of the church. Let not a man or woman leave the 
house until you have all signed this pledge," pointing to 
it as it lay on the table. Nor would he consent that the 
doors should be opened until all his flock had pledged them- 
selves to total abstinence. 

We may close this account of Hawkins's temperance efforts 
by quoting an anecdote from one of his speeches: 

"Just let me tell you about one of our reformed men. 
We all of us changed a great deal in our appearance: some 
grew thin, some grew pale, but a certain dark-complexioned 
man grew yellow, and the old grogseller, noticing the change 
in the others, and seeing this old customer not becoming 
white, declared he did not believe but what he was a hypo- 
crite, still drinking behind the door. One day the two men 
met, and the taverner said to the teetotaler: 

" ' It appears to me that you don't alter quite so much as 
the rest." 



OF THE WORLD. 



20I 



1 ' ' Don' t I ? Well, why don' t I ?' 

" 'Why, you don't grow pale. You only grow yaller.' 
u ( Yes,' said the reformed drunkard, putting his hand in 
his pocket and pulling out a handful of gold-pieces, * these 
look yaller, too, but you don't get any more of 'em from 
me. These are for my wife and family.' " 




The Yellow-complexioned Man. 



JOHN B. GOUGH. 

We have now to tell the story of the most notable of tem- 
perance orators from the Washingtonian, or, in fact, from 
any, standpoint. The early biography of John B. Gough 
resembles in certain respects that of John Hawkins, and his 



202 THE WHITE ANGEL 

own narration of his battle with the rum-fiend is yet more 
thrillingly interesting. 

Mr. Gough was a native of England, being born at Sand- 
gate, Kent, on August 27, 1817. His education was very 
meagre, he having left school at ten years of age. In his 
eleventh year he came to America with a family that in- 
tended to settle on a farm in Oneida county, N. Y. His 
mother grieved deeply at the separation, and in anxious 
desire for the welfare of her son pinned to the scanty cloth- 
ing in his small trunk bits of paper with texts of Scripture 
written on them. 

This last gift of the pious mother may have had its effect 
in awaking her boy to serious thoughts, for two years after 
reaching America he became a probationary member of the 
Methodist Church. He had then left Oneida county for 
New York City, where he served as errand-boy in the Meth- 
odist Book Concern and learned the bookbinding trade. 

In his New York life he soon drifted away from the Church 
and entered upon that down-hill road which he was destined 
to tread to such depths. In 1833 he sent for his mother and 
sister to come to New York, but his mother soon died, broken 
down by her privations in the sorry quarters which her son 
was able to provide for her, and the boy and his sister were 
left alone in their struggle with the world. 

Five years after reaching New York young Gough became 
a comic singer in a low theatre in Chatham street. His 
native dramatic talent served him in good stead in this busi- 
ness, which he pursued for several years, singing in various 
cities of New York and New England, and learning to drink 
almost as if it were a necessary part of his profession. One 
of the performances in which he took part was a play called 
" The Departed Spirits; or, The Temperance Hoax," in 
which the noted temperance orators Dr. Lyman Beecher 
and Deacon Moses Grant were satirized and ridiculed. 



OF THE WORLD. 203 

The young man was a good workman at his trade, and 
might have prospered at it but for his inveterate thirst for 
drink and the low associations into which his theatrical life 
led him. While still quite young he married, and soon after 
opened a bindery in Newburyport. But his earnings in great 
part went for whiskey, and it was not long before his wife 
and child were removed by death, leaving him to mourn 
their loss in the drunkard's fashion of mingled grief and 
intoxication. 

A debauch which lasted for three days brought on a fit 
of delirium tremens, during which he fell on his bed in 
drunken stupor after having dropped upon it a lighted 
match. In a short time the bed was in flames, and the 
wretched drunkard would have been burned to death but 
that the smell of fire brought neighbors hastily to his rescue. 

He soon after removed to Worcester, where his dissipation 
oecame extreme. He would visit the saloons at night, and 
entertain a low audience with comic songs and stories, for 
which he received pay in drink. His marked talent in this 
direction won him a high reputation among his dissolute 
associates, who encouraged him with their riotous applause. 
Under the influence of liquor, indeed, he would grow wild 
with merriment, and utter the most ridiculous sayings with 
that inimitable power for which he afterward became so 
celebrated. 

It was now the year 1842. The Washingtonian move- 
ment was creating a furore throughout New England. 
Cough tells us that at that time he was so lost to hope, 
ooth for this world and the next, that he was contemplating 
suicide, not caring for what future state he might exchange 
liis miserable and degraded existence here. 

On a Sunday morning in October of that year, while in 
this depressed condition, he was wandering, half drunk and 
lialf clad, under the elms in the public square of Worcester, 



204 THE WHITE ANGEL 

amen a hand touched him on the shoulder, and a kindly 
voice said, " Mr. Gough, I believe?" 

The wretched young man looked up in surprise, so unused 
had the voice of kindness become to his ear. The person 
who had accosted him, Joel Stratton by name, cordially in- 
vited him to attend the temperance meeting which was to 
be held at the town -hall, and after a short conversation the 
poor and hopeless outcast consented to go. 

The meeting was fixed for the next evening, and at the 
hour appointed Gough made his appearance, though he had 
been drinking throughout the day. He was dressed in an 
old brown surtout buttoned to his chin to hide the sorry 
garments beneath. 

His friend, Mr. Stratton, was there to receive and welcome 
him. Gough entered the hall, listened with interest to the 
proceedings, and when an opportunity for speaking came 
arose as if inspired and demanded to be heard. He pre- 
sented himself to the audience as an example of the work 
that rum was doing, showing his trembling hands and nerve- 
less frame, and told what a miserable, houseless, hopeless 
wretch he had become. 

" But I have promised to sign the pledge," he said, u and 
I am determined not to break my word. ' ' 

There were few dry eyes in the audience as the pledge 
was delivered to the new convert, and with a hand that 
could scarcely hold the pen, yet with a warm earnestness 
in his heart, he affixed his name to that new Declaration 
of Independence. 

( ' I had exerted a moral power which had long remained 
lying by perfectly useless," says Mr. Gough in his auto- 
biography, ' ' and the very idea of what I had done strength- 
ened and encouraged me. 

' ' Many who witnessed my signing and heard my simple 
statement came forward and kindly grasped my hand, and 



OF THE WORLD. 205 

expressed their satisfaction at the step I had taken. And 
now a better day seemed already to have dawned upon me. 
As I left the hall, agitated and enervated, I remember chuck- 
ling to myself with great gratification, 'I have done it! I 
have done it!' 

1 ' When I got up in the morning my brain seemed as 
though it would burst. My throat was on fire, and in my 
stomach I experienced a dreadful burning sensation, as if 
the fires of the pit had been kindled there. My hands trem- 
bled so that I could not raise a drink of water to my feverish 
lips. I literally gasped for my accustomed stimulus, and felt 
that I should die if I did not have it. Still, I experienced a 
feeling somewhat akin to satisfaction at the position I had 
taken. I had made at least one step toward reform. I was 
exceedingly weak, and fancied, as I almost reeled about my 
shop, that every eye was fixed upon me. I was suffering, 
and those who have never suffered thus cannot comprehend 
what it means. The shivering of the spine; then the flashes 
of heat, causing every pore of the body to sting as if punc- 
tured with some sharp instrument; the horrible whispering 
in the ear, combined with the longing cry of the whole sys- 
tem for stimulants — one glass of brandy would steady my 
shaking nerves, but I would not touch it. I said to myself: 
i Here I am, a young man but twenty-five years of age, but 
I have no control of my nerves; I cannot stand still, I can- 
not hold my hands still. One glass of brandy would relieve 
this gnawing, aching, throbbing system, but I have signed 
the pledge, and I must fight it out.' 

( ' How I got through the day I cannot tell. 

' ' I went to my employer, and said, * I signed the pledge 
last night. ' 

" ' I know you did. ' 

" * I mean to keep it.' 

" * So they all say. I hope you will.' 



206 THE WHITE ANGEL 

c ' ( You don' t believe I will ? You have no confidence in 
me?' 

' ( ' None whatever. ' 

c ' I turned to my work broken-hearted, crushed in spirit, 
paralyzed in energy, feeling how low I had sunk in the 
esteem of prudent and sober-minded men. Suddenly the 
small bar I held in my hand began to move; I felt it move; 
I gripped it; still it moved and twisted; I gripped it still 
harder; yet the thing would move until I could feel it — 
yes, feel it — tearing the palm out of my hand; then I 
dropped it, and there it lay, a curling, slimy snake! I 
could hear the paper shavings rustle as the horrible thing 
writhed before me ! If it had been a snake, I should not have 
minded it. ... I should not have been terrified at a thing ; 
but I knew it was a cold, dead bar of iron, and there it was, 
with it green eyes, its forked, darting tongue, curling in all 
its slimy loathsomeness; and the horror filled me so that my 
hair seemed to stand up and shiver, and my skin lift from 
the scalp to the ankles, and I groaned out, ( I cannot fight 
this through! Oh, my God, I shall die! I cannot fight it!' 
when a gentleman came into the shop with a cheerful 

" 'Good-morning, Mr. Gough.' 

( ' ' Good-morning, sir. ' 

u ' I saw you sign the pledge last night. ' 

"'Yes, sir; I did it' 

" ' I was very glad to see you do it, and many young men 
followed your example. It is just such men as you that we 
want, and I hope you will be the means of doing a great 
deal of good. My office is in the Exchange; come and see 
me. I shall be happy to make your acquaintance. I have 
only a minute or two to spare, but I thought I would just 
call and tell you to keep up a brave heart. Good-bye I 
God bless you! Come and see me.' 

' ' This was Jesse Goodrich, than a practising attorney and 



208 THE WHITE ANGEL 

counsellor-at-law in Worcester, now dead, but to the last of 
his life my true and faithful friend. It would be impossible 
to describe how this little act of kindness cheered me. With 
the exception of Joel Stratton, who was a waiter at a tem- 
perance hotel, and who had asked me to sign the pledge, no 
one had accosted me for months in a manner which would 
lead me to think any one cared what might be my fate. 
Now I was not altogether alone in the world. I had some- 
thing now to live for; a new desire for life seemed suddenly 
to spring up. ' ' 

Gough proceeds to tell the story of the terrible suffering 
he passed through during the following days, assailed by 
all the frightful phantoms of delirium, yet fighting them 
off with the strength of a newborn resolution. 

' ' In about a week I gained, in a great degree, the mas- 
tery over my accursed appetite, but the strife had made me 
dreadfully weak. Gradually my health improved; I recov- 
ered my spirits and ceased to despair. Once more I was 
enabled to crawl into the sunshine; but, oh, how changed! 
Wan cheeks and hollow eyes, feeble limbs and almost pow- 
erless hands, plainly enough indicated that between me and 
death there had been indeed but a step; and those who saw 
me might say as was said of Dante when he passed through 
the streets of Florence, ' There goes a man that has been in 
hell!' " 

No more valuable convert to the cause of temperance had 
ever been made. The talent of the young man as an actor 
and singer was well known, and this talent was now devoted 
to the temperance reform, combined with a thrilling earnest- 
ness and graphic powers of description that gave him a re- 
markable influence over his new audiences. Through New 
England he went, lecturing to multitudes, telling his story 
in language that gave life to its every detail, singing tem- 
perance songs, exhorting drunkards to sing the pledge, and 



OF THE WORLD. 209 

taking the names of thousands who were won over by his 
irresistible eloquence. 

Once Gough fell back into his old vice. It was under 
severe nervous prostration, and through the influence of 
stimulating medicine administered him by a physician. 
But his relapse was for a few days only. His friends 
rallied around him, roused him from the shame and des- 
pair which overwhelmed him, and restored him again to 
the temperance ranks. On one other occasion a treacher- 
ous acquaintance gave him whiskey disguised in soda- 
water. Gough was seriously affected, but the effort to bring 
him back to his old habits proved futile. 

The record of his career says that in his first year he made 
three hundred and eighty-three addresses, travelled six thou- 
sand eight hundred and forty miles, and obtained fifteen 
thousand two hundred and eighteen signatures to the 
pledge. He received scarcely money enough to pay his 
expenses. 

In 1843, Gough married again, the bride being Miss Mary 
Whitcomb of Boylston, Massachusetts. He says that after 
lie had paid the minister and their fare to Boston he had 
"just three dollars and a half left." But he had a wife 
who ever afterward proved his good angel, travelling with 
■him, nerving him to resist his old enemy, and aiding him 
in the improvement of his methods of oratory. 

Mr. Gough' s manner was too well known to all Americans 
to need description. His power in telling an anecdote, either 
of the amusing or the thrilling order, was never surpassed. 
His emotional excitement swayed the audience till his soul 
seemed infused into every person in the hall. It was im- 
possible for him to keep still. No platform was too wide 
for him when he became warmed up to his work. He ges- 
tured, not with his hands, but with his whole body. As he 
himself says, "I know I am ungraceful and awkward. I 

14 



2IO THE WHITE ANGEL 

never studied grace of action or gesture. A German in 
Philadelphia once said to his employer, ' I goes to hear dot 
Meester Gough vot dalks mit his goat-dails.' " 

His intensity was such that it could carry him through 
hours of excited oratory. After an hour's or two hours' lec- 
ture Gough would often entertain a party of friends for two or 
three hours more, gradually cooling down from the intense 
heat into which he had kindled himself before his audience. 

In 1853, Mr. Gough went to England, on invitation of the 
London Temperance League, intending to spend a month in 
lecturing in that country. But his reception was so en- 
thusiastic and his success so great that his month of ser- 
vice became lengthened to more than two years. Before 
leaving for home he made arrangements for three years more 
of temperance lectures in the British Islands. 

In his later years he diversified his lectures, dealing with 
many themes, though never losing his power of swaying an 
audience .at will to laughter or tears. But temperance con- 
tinued to be the theme nearest his heart, and his voice and 
pen could never long lose sight of the fact that the conflict 
against intemperance was his predestined life-work. 

Of illustration and anecdote, which formed so essential a 
part of the "stock in trade" of aWashingtonian orator, Gough 
had an unceasing flow. No man ever surpassed him in quick 
appreciation or hearty enjoyment of a good story, or in the 
art of making his audience enjoy it with him. Wherever 
he went fun seemed to crop up around him. Nothing ludi- 
crous, pathetic, or thrilling ever escaped his quick attention, 
and humor, pathos, and emotional earnestness, rather than 
literary skill, are the distinguishing characteristics of the 
books which he has left behind him. 

One of Gough' s most apposite illustrations may be not. 
out of place here as an instance of his characteristic style: 

" I remember riding from Buffalo to Niagara Falls, and I 



OF THE WORLD. 211 

said to a gentleman: ' What river is that, sir ?' — ' That,' he 
said, 'is Niagara River. 5 — 'Well, it is a beautiful stream,' 
said I; 'bright, and fair, and glassy; how far off are the 
rapids?' — ' Only a mile or two,' was the reply. — "Is it pos- 
sible that only a mile from us we shall find the water in the 
turbulence which it must show when near the falls?' — ' You 
will find it so, sir. ' And so I found it, and that first sight 
of the Niagara I shall never forget. Now, launch your bark 
on that Niagara River; it is bright, smooth, beautiful, and 
glassy. There is a ripple at the bow; the silvery wake you 
leave behind adds to your enjoyment. Down the stream you 
glide, oars, sails, and helm in proper trim, and you set out 
on your pleasure-excursion. Suddenly some one cries out 
from the bank: ' Young men, ahoy !' — ' What is it ?' — ' The 
rapids are below you.' — 'Ha! ha! we have heard of the 
rapids, but we are not such fools as to get there. If we 
go too fast, then we shall up with the helm and steer for 
the shore; we will set the mast in the socket, hoist the sail, 
and speed to land. Then on, boys. Don't be alarmed; 
there's no danger.' — 'Young men, ahoy there!' — 'What is 
it?' — ' The rapids are below you.' — ' Ha! ha! we will laugh 
and quaff; all things delight us. What care we for the 
future? No man ever saw it. Sufficient for the day is 
the evil thereof. We will enjoy life while we may; we will 
catch pleasure as it flies. This is enjoyment; enough time 
to steer out of danger when we are sailing swiftly with the 
current' — 'Young men, ahoy!' — 'What is it?' — 'Beware! 
beware! the rapids are below you.' Now you see the water 
foaming all around. See how fast you pass that point! Up 
with the helm! Now turn! Pull hard! Quick! quick! 
Pull for your lives! Pull till the blood starts from the nos- 
trils and the veins stand like whipcord upon the brow ! Set 
the mast in the socket ! Hoist the sail ! Ah ! ah ! it is too 
late! Shrieking, cursing, howling, blaspheming — over you 



212 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



go! Thousands go over the rapids every year through the 
power of evil habit, crying all the while, ' When I find out 
that it is injuring me, I will give it up.' " 



THIS IS THE ROAD 

TO DEATH. 




Down the Rapids of Rum. 

Such an illustration of the insidious approaches of drunk- 
enness and its final irresistible hold on the victim, told in 
Gough's intense and graphic manner, and with his dramatic 
imagery of gesture and movement, must have been heard to 
be appreciated. It was enough to bring dozens of drunk- 
ards to the pledge. One further extract from his autobiog- 
raphy will serve to close our description of this eloquent 
orator: 

U I have more than once spoken to an audience of what 
are termed ' outcasts,' and a pitiful sight it is. On one occa- 
sion I addressed eight hundred, and on another — in Glas- 
gow — over three thousand. The city missionaries had, by 
their influence, induced the poor creatures to come. There 



Of THE WORLD. 213 

were rags, and filth, and degradation beyond description. It 
seemed as if the last lingering trace of human beauty had 
been dashed out by the hoof of debauchery, and the die of 
the devil stamped on the defaced image of God; and all of 
them human beings, with hearts and souls, with a love for 
the pure and beautiful — men and women; yes, and children 
— with such human histories of want and suffering, priva- 
tion and misery, as might well be traced in tears and written 
in blood. 

u On one occasion, as I entered the audience-room where 
some hundreds of this class had assembled, with the provost 
of the borough and a minister of the town, who accompanied 
me, the former said, as we came in, ' Mr. Gough, you have 
1 1 Fire ' ' in the house to-night. ' 

1 ' I asked, ' What do you mean V 

' c He said, ' Do you see that woman near the platform ?' 

"'Yes.' 

"'Her nickname is "Hell-Fire;" she is known by no 
other name in the vicinity of her wretched residence. 
When she appears in the street the boys cry, "Fire! 
Fire!" She is the most incorrigible woman in the borough. 
She has been brought before me scores of times, and sen- 
tenced to imprisonment from four days to six months. She 
is ripe for mischief, and if she makes a disturbance you will 
see such a row as you never saw before. The power of the 
woman's tongue in blasphemy is horrible/ 

' ' When I rose to address the audience I expected a row, 
and confess to a nervous feeling of apprehension. I spoke 
to them as men and women, not as outcasts or things. I 
told them poverty was hard to bear, but there might be 
comfort, light, and peace with poverty; told them I had 
been poor, very poor; spoke to them of my mother and her 
struggles; then of her faith and love and hope; that there 
was no degradation in poverty — only sin caused that. In 



214 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



p 



proportion to wrong-doing was the degradation, ~and so on. 

I saw a naked arm and hand lifted in the crowd and heard 

a voice cry out, ' That's all true.' 

"The woman (Fire) rose to her feet, and, facing me, said: 

' That' s a' true, mon ; ye' re 
i telling the truth. ' And, 
stretching her arms to 
the audience, she said, 
' The mon kens what he's 
talking aboot. ' 

1 ' When I concluded 
she came on the plat- 
form, and I almost 
thought she might tackle 
me. She was a large 
woman, and looked like 
a hard hitter, and I never 
desired to come in con- 
tact with ' strong-minded' 
or big-fisted women ; but 
after looking at me a 
moment she said, 'Tak' 
a gude look at me, mon. 
I'm a bit of a beauty, 
ain't I?' Then coming 
close to me, ' Would you 
gi'e a body like me the 
pledge ?' 

"I answered at once, ' Yes, ma'am.' 
"A gentleman said: 'She cannot keep it; she will be 

drunk before she goes to bed to-night. Better not give her 

the pledge.' 

" I turned to her: ' Madam, here is a gentleman who says 

you cannot keep it if you sign it. ' 




OF THE WORLD. 21 5 

" Clinching her fist, she said, ' Show me the mon.' 

" I asked, * Can you keep it?' 

" ' Can I ? If I say I wull, I can.' 

4 ' ' Then you say you will ?' 

"'Iwull.' 

" ' Give me your hand on that.' And I shook hands with 
her. She signed it, and I said: 'I know you will keep it, 
and before I go to America I will come and see you. ' 

1 ' ' Come and see me when you wull, ' she answered, ' and 
ye'll find I ha'e kept it.' 

' ' It must have been two years from that time I was 
speaking there again, and after the lecture a gentleman 
said to me: 'I wish to introduce to you an old friend, 
whom perhaps you have forgotten — Mrs. Archer, no longer 
"Fire."' 

' ' I was introduced, and shook hands heartily with her and 
her daughter, who sat by her. I had noticed the woman 
during my speech, for she hardly took her eyes off me from 
the time I rose till I sat down. I went to her house, and 
part of what she said to me was this: 

" 'Ah! Mr. Gough, I'm a puir body; I dinna ken much, 
and what little I ha'e kenned has been knocked out of me 
by the staffs of the policemen, for they beat me aboot the 
head a good deal, and knocked pretty much a' the sense 
out of me; but sometimes I ha'e a dream: I dream I'm 
drunk, and fighting, and the police ha'e got me again; and 
then I get out of my bed and I go down on my knees, and 
I don't go back to my bed till daylight comes, and I keep 
saying: u God keep me! for I canna get drunk anymair." ' 

"Her daughter said: 'Ay, mon! I've heerd my mither 
in the dead of night, on the bare floor, crying, "God keep 
me!" and I've said, "Come to yer bed, mither, ye' 11 be 
cauld;" and she'll tell me, "No, no, I canna get drunk 
any mair." ' 



2 1 6 THE WHITE ANGEL 

' ( I received a letter from the provost of trie borough, 
dated February, 1869, telling me that Mrs Archer had been 
faithful to her promise, was keeping a small provision-store 
or shop, had taken a little orphan boy out of the streets, 
and was bringing him up well, and sending me her photo- 
graph.' ' 



CHAPTER IX. 
FAMOUS ORATORS OF THE FIRST CRUSADES. 

/^VF the many ardent and eloquent temperance advocates 
^-^ of the period of which we are now speaking, one man 
of Irish birth so surpassed all others in the extraordinary 
success of his efforts that some particular mention of his 
work seems here needful. 

Theobald Mathew was born in the county of Tipperary, 
Ireland, on •October 10, 1790. He was religiously inclined 
during his boyhood, gentle, tender-hearted, and benevolent, 
and both at the desire of his mother and from his own in- 
clinations studied for the priesthood. He joined the order 
of Capuchin Friars, was ordained in 18 14, and quickly be- 
came a favorite in the parish of Kilkenny, his first field of 
labor. He soon afterward removed to Cork, where his win- 
ning speech and devotion to the duties of his office gave him 
a high reputation throughout the surrounding country, and 
Father Mathew' s confessional became a favorite place of 
resort. 

His first work of reform was the establishment of an in- 
dustrial school for girls. The city swarmed with idle and 
ignorant children, and his school soon had five hundred 
pupils, for whom he found teachers among the ladies of his 
parish. His popularity resulted in a considerable increase 
to the income of his church, but the money received was 
disbursed so freely in gifts to the poor that an imaginative 
Irishman declared, "If the streets of Cork were paved with 
gold, and Father Mathew had control of them, there wouldn't 

be a paving-stone in all Cork by the end of the year." 

217 



2lS THE WHITE ANGEL 

From 1820 forward Father Mathew was one of the most 
popular preachers of his day, his reputation extending 
throughout Ireland. He was free from sectarian prejudices, 
and had many friends outside of his own Church, being asso- 
ciated with Protestants in his labors of charity. In 1832 
the city of Cork was terribly scourged with the cholera. 
During this epidemic Father Mathew was earnest and inde- 
fatigable in his devotion to the sick. Every night, from mid- 
night till six o'clock in the morning, he was on duty at the 
cholera hospital, and his diligent ministrations to the sick 
w^ere of the highest value. 

His attention was first called to the field of labor in which 
he was destined to gain a world-wide fame by William Mar- 
tin, a Quaker, and so earnest a temperance adVocate as to 
gain him the title of "the grandfather of the temperance 
cause ' ' in Ireland. As yet the temperance-reform move- 
ment had made no progress with the Roman Catholic popu- 
lation, and the good Quaker, in his ardent desire to extend 
Its sphere of usefulness, looked upon Father Mathew as the 
very man for the work. 

u Oh, Theobald Mathew, if thou wouldst but take the 
cause in hand!" he pleaded, and his unselfish appeal in time 
convinced the good priest of the necessity of a crusade against 
intemperance. He was finally led to undertake the work by 
the persuasions of a deputation consisting of the Rev. N. C. 
Dunscombe, an Episcopal clergyman, Richard Dowden, a 
Unitarian, and the Quaker William Martin. Satisfied at 
length that duty called him to this field of labor, he con- 
sented to preside at a temperance meeting, and with a hearty 
"Here goes, in the nanie of God!" signed his name to the 
total-abstinence pledge. This notable event took place on 
the 10th of April, 1838. 

The worthy priest on becoming president of the Cork 
Total-Abstinence Society must have been utterly unpre- 



OF THE WORLD. 



219 



pared for what was to follow. Yet his act and his elo- 
quent appeals to his countrymen created a furore through- 
out all that section of Ireland so great that by January of 
the succeeding year more than one hundred and fifty thou- 




Father Mathew and Patsy. 

sand persons, mostly natives of the county of Cork, had fol- 
lowed his example in signing the pledge. 

Soon from the adjoining counties multitudes began to pour 
into Cork, all eager to see the great apostle of temperance 
and to take the pledge in his presence. No epidemic of 



220 THE WHITE ANGEL 

disease ever spread with more rapidity than this health- 
seeking crusade. The apartment on the ground-floor of the 
good priest's house in which his temperance receptions were 
held was crowded all day and until eleven o'clock at night 
with the multitudes who were eager to take the pledge, some 
of them sober and solemn, others in reeling order from the 
effects of their farewell potations. 

1 ' Kneel down now, Patsy, ' ' he would say to a tipsy and 
doubtful fellow, who had been brought in by wife or friend — 
u kneel down and say the words of the pledge after me." 

A friendly but strong pressure of the priest's hand on the 
man's shoulder would bring him to his knees. Reluctantly, 
yet powerless to resist, the brawny fellow would repeat the 
words solemnly spoken by the priest. 

" There, now I'll mark you with the holy sign of the 
cross, and pray God to save you from temptation;" and 
Patsy would be a teetotaler, hardly knowing how or why. 

' ' Why do you give the pledge to people when they are 
drunk?" Father Mathew was asked. 

1 ' Because I find they keep it, ' ' was his reply. 

The worthy priest soon became invested, through the 
superstition of the people, with miraculous healing powers. 
Many declared that they had been cured of disease by re- 
ceiving his benediction after taking the pledge at his hands. 
He denied having any such power, but it was believed 
despite his denial, and the superstitious fancy added greatly 
to his influence. It was indeed, in one sense, more than a 
superstition. For not only the serious disease of intemper- 
ance was cured by his touch, but abstinence from drinking 
must have put an end to many of the maladies to which the 
whiskey-bottle gives rise, and indirectly, at least, his heal- 
ing touch must have performed many marked cures. 

The next phase of his mission began in a pilgrimage 
through Ireland, in which he held meetings in city after 



OF THE WORLD. 221 

city, while crowds of people everywhere flocked to his min- 
istrations, all eager to receive the pledge at his hands. 

At Limerick, which he first visited, so great was the rush 
of penitent drinkers that five thousand persons remained in 
the streets all night. For four days he was engaged almost 
without cessation in giving pledges, and by the end of that 
time his secretaries had registered the names of a hundred 
and fifty thousand persons, pledged, to quote the obligation 
to which they bound themselves, ' ' to abstain from all intoxi- 
cating drinks, except used medicinally and by order of a 
medical man, and to discountenance the cause and practice 
of intemperance." 

Similar scenes occurred in every city he visited. At May- 
nooth, the seat of his studies for the priesthood, thirty-five 
thousand citizens, two hundred and fifty students, and eight 
college professors pledged themselves to total abstinence. By 
the end of the year 1840 nearly two millions of his country- 
men had taken the pledge. By November, 1844, he was able 
to report that he had registered "in Ireland 5,640,000 ad- 
herents of total-abstinence principles." 

At one time, while passing through the town of Athy, 
some one saw and recognized his benevolent features in the 
stage-coach, and the cry "Father Mathew is here !" spread 
through the town. In a few minutes the coach became 
blocked with such a crowd that it could not move. Five 
hours elapsed before it was permitted to resume its journey, 
this whole time being occupied in giving the pledge to eager 
applicants. 

Local societies were everywhere formed of the people who 
had taken the pledge, meetings were held, reading-rooms 
opened, and every means taken to render the reform perma- 
nent. A favorite addenda to these societies was a brass band, 
in which Father Mathew greatly delighted and to which 
lie contributed not a little money. It kept up the enthusi- 



2 22 THE WHITE ANGEL 

asm which he was shrewd enough to perceive was an essen- 
tial feature in the good cause. 

A notable result of the reformation was a remarkable de- 
crease of crime in Ireland. In eight years' time capital 
offences fell off from sixty-six to fourteen per year, and 
sentences of transportation from nine hundred and sixteen 
to five hundred and four. The reduction in the consump- 
tion of spirits to one-half its former amount, in connection 
with the facts above given, notably connects crime with 
liquor-drinking. * It may be well asked, if the cutting off 
of one-half the intemperance reduced crime»more than one- 
half, what would have been the effects of a complete cessa- 
tion of drinking ? It looks as if the office of jailer would 
have become a sinecure under such circumstances. 

One interesting feature of Father Mathew's pilgrimage 
is the fact that he had a brother, and also a more distant 
relative, who were engaged in the business of distilling, and 
who implored him to desist, saying, c ' If you go on thus, 
you will certainly ruin our fortunes." His answer was one 
worthy of a born pioneer in reform: "Change your trade; 
turn your premises into factories for flour; at all events, my 
course is fixed. Though heaven and earth should come to- 
gether, we should do what is right." 

It is said that the brother, whose building alone had cost 
him ^30,000, was nearly ruined by the temperance reform, 
and that the other relative mentioned, a brother-in-law, be- 
came a bankrupt. Father Mathew had a warm-hearted 
affection for his relatives, but the world had become his 

*" Between 1838 and 1840 the consumption of spirits in Ireland had fallen off 
5,000,000 gallons; the public-houses where liquor was retailed had lessened by 
two hundred and thirty-seven in the city of Dublin alone ; the persons imprisoned 
in the Bridewell (the principal city prison) had fallen in a single year from one 
hundred and thirty-six to twenty-three, and more than one hundred cells in the 
Bridewell being empty, the Smithfield prison was actually closed." — Judge Davis 
m Intemperance and Crime, p. 12. 



224 THE WHITE ANGEL 

field of charity, and duty to mankind with him outweighed 
family affection. 

Invitations now began to pour in requesting the apostle 
of temperance to extend his ministrations to England and 
Scotland, one from Edinburgh being signed by two thou- 
sand ladies. To these appeals he replied: "I must first heal 
the deep and festering wounds of the Irish people." In 
1842, however, he visited Glasgow, where his reception was 
most enthusiastic, and where forty thousand persons took 
the pledge. In the following year he repaired to England, 
and administered the pledge to great numbers of his coun- 
trymen in the larger cities. 

His visit to London was in response to the invitation of 
Earl Stanhope, president of the National Temperance So- 
ciety of England. The first meeting in London was held 
in Bethnal Green, a favorite resort of the Irish population. 
It was a drizzly day and the place was muddy, but Lord 
Stanhope's earnestness in the temperance cause not only 
brought him there, but induced him to kneel down in the 
mud, and in the presence of twenty thousand Irishmen to 
take the pledge from Father Mathew. The good priest laid 
his hand on the head of the noble peer, breathed a prayer 
for his fidelity, and gave him to wear a copy of the medal 
which he was in the habit of distributing to his converts. 
We hardly need say that such an example as this had an 
extraordinary effect upon the crowd, and that the rush to 
take the pledge was unprecedented. 

During his brief tour through England it is said that 
nearly three hundred thousand persons pledged themselves 
to total abstinence, among whom were many people of the 
highest standing in society. 

The Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler thus describes an interview 
with Father Mathew during his visit to Glasgow: " Arriving 
in Glasgow, we found a multitude of over fifty thousand 



OF THE WORLD. 225 

people assembled on the Green. In an open barouche 
drawn by four houses stood a short, stout Irishman, with 
a handsome, benevolent countenance, and attired in a long 
black coat; a silver medal hung on his breast. The crowd 
surged around his carriage, many of them striving to grasp 
his hand or even to touch his clothing. After the proces- 
sion had forced its way through the densely-thronged streets 
it halted in a small open square. Father Mathew dismounted, 
and began to administer the pledge of abstinence to those 
who were willing to receive it. They kneeled on the ground 
in platoons; the pledge was read out to them; Father Mathew 
laid his hand on the head of each one and pronounced a 
brief benediction. Over the necks of many a small medal 
attached to a cord was placed. In this rapid manner the 
pledge was administered to many hundreds of persons within 
an hour, and fresh crowds continually came forward. When 
I was introduced to the good man as an American, he spoke 
a few kind words and gave me an ' apostolic kiss ' upon the 
cheek. As I was about to make the first public temperance 
speech of my life, I suppose I may regard that act of the great 
Irish apostle as a sort of ordination to the ministry of preach- 
ing the gospel of total abstinence 

" He was unquestionably the most remarkable temperance 
reformer who had yet appeared. For a portion of his power 
he was indebted to his position as a Roman Catholic eccle- 
siastic; but there was also vast power in the persuasive ap- 
peals which he made to the hearts and consciences of the 
multitudes whom he reached in Ireland, Great Britain, and 
America. It is computed that no less than five millions 
took the pledge of total abstinence from intoxicating poisons 
by his influence; the revolution he wrought in his own time 
and country was marvellous, and the hand of God was vis- 
ible in it. Nor did his beneficent work end with his life. 

Large numbers, indeed, who became abstainers by his per- 
15 



226 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



suasions fell back gradually into the mire of intemperance; 
but to-day, on both sides of the ocean, there are hundreds 
of thousands who are still loyal members of the ' Father 
Mathew societies.' His dead hand is still felt. Theobald 




The Father Mathew Medal. 



Mathew is to-day a more vital power than Daniel O'Connell; 
the benevolent priest of Cork has outlasted the burly orator 
of College Green." 

Father Mathew' s early characteristics clung to him during 
his ministrations. Money slipped through his hands like 
water. At one time, when he had the reputation of being 
enormously rich, he was actually seven thousand pounds in 
debt, chiefly money borrowed to be given away. The people 
who took the pledge from him all wanted a medal, and as 
few of them were able to buy one, he gave them away by 
thousands. In fact, he was once arrested for debt by the 
maker of the medals. The bailiff who bore the writ took the 
opportunity to present it by feigning to kneel for his blessing. 
But the good priest went on giving the pledge to the crowd 
around him as though nothing unusual had happened. He 
well knew that that bailiff would have had a short shrift 
had an inkling of his errand become known to the throng. 

During the famine of 1846-47, Father Mathew used his 
utmost endeavors to relieve the necessities of the people and 



OF THE WORLD. 22 7 

to arouse the charitable in their behalf. He gave away all 
his own money and all he could obtain from others, and did 
his utmost in support of the industrial schools and work- 
rooms that were started by the charitable. During this dread- 
ful period the noble priest worked as unceasingly to relieve 
the necessities of the people as he had ever done to bring 
them to habits of temperance. 

In 1849 ne visited America, landing in New York on the 
2d of July. His reception in this country was a continual 
ovation. His stay here continued till the 8th of November, 
during which time he journeyed widely over the country 
and visited many of the principal cities of the East, admin- 
istering the pledge and giving medals wherever he went. A 
failure of health prevented him from extending his journey, 
as designed, throughout the whole country. On his arrival 
in Washington a resolution was unanimously carried in Con- 
gress to invite him to a seat on the floor of the House, the 
highest honor that could have been conferred. The mem- 
bers rose to receive him as he entered the House with as 
much respect as if he had been a crowned monarch instead 
of a simple Irish priest. During his stay in this country a 
very considerable number of persons, mostly Irish Catholics, 
received the pledge at his hands. 

Father Mathew died on December 8, 1856, his last days 
being spent in great suffering. His unceasing labors had 
brought on partial paralysis. Numerous stories are told of 
his healing powers, some of them extraordinary if true as 
related, but in all probability they indicated effects of the 
curative action of the mind upon the body. One interest- 
ing story is told of a lunatic who was being taken by his 
friends to the asylum at Cork. Bound on a car, with his 
head exposed to the full rays of the sun, he was brought, at 
the suggestion of one of his conductors, to Father Mathew. 
The poor fellow was screaming and raving in a paroxysm of 



2 28 THE WHITE ANGEL 

madness. The priest spoke to him gently and kindly, sooth- 
ingly touched his burning face, and directed his friends to 
untie his bonds and to cover his head from the sun. The 
effect of this treatment upon the patient was marvellous. 
His paroxysms ceased, he recognized Father Mathew, in 
whose powers he seemed to have unbounded faith, and 
promised that if he were taken home he would do every- 
thing that was asked of him. At the priest's request this 
was done. A month afterward a well-dressed and handsome 
young man called upon Father Mathew to thank him for 
"what he had done for him." It was the late lunatic, now 
completely restored to health. 

THOMAS F. MARSHALL. 

One of the most eloquent of the temperance orators of 
America during the period in question was the Hon. Thomas 
F. Marshall, nephew of the eminent Chief-justice John Mar- 
shall, and at that time a member of Congress from Kentucky. 
He was considered the most eloquent speaker on the floor of 
the House, and was a man of fine intellect, broad education, 
and unusual powers of memory and imagination, a voice of 
great sweetness, and all the qualities, in fact, that go to 
make up a finished orator. Yet, distinguished and eloquent 
as he was, drunkenness had taken him captive and he was 
fast going to ruin. 

He at length became seriously alarmed at the state into 
which strong drink had brought him. On January 7, 1842, 
he entered the House of Representatives after drinking 
freely and with every nerve of his body calling out for 
fresh potations. His excitement and almost uncontrollable 
thirst for stimulants were so great as to frighten him, and 
he requested the Hon. George Briggs of Massachusetts to 
bring him the total-abstinence pledge. This was done, and 
he signed it. 



OF THE WORLD. 2 29 

Not content with this, he determined to sign it publicly, 
and did so at a large temperance meeting that was held at 
the medical college. He detailed to the audience his reasons 
for the step he had taken with such emotional earnestness 
that several other members of Congress followed his ex- 
ample. 

This event led the Congressional Temperance Society, 
which had been organized in 1833, to adopt the total-absti- 
nence pledge. On February 25th a meeting was held in the 
hall of the House of Representatives, which was crowded 
by those who hoped to hear a speech from Mr. Marshall, 
whose eloquence had made him famous. The address that 
followed was one of the best he ever delivered, and roused 
up not only Congress, but all the country, to renewed interest 
in the temperance cause. We quote its earnestly eloquent 
conclusion: 

" Sir, the pledge I have taken renders me secure for ever 
from a fate inevitably following habits like mine — a fate more 
terrible than death. That pledge, though confined to myself 
alone, and with reference only to its effects upon me, my 
mind, my heart, my body, I would not exchange for all 

earth holds of brightest and of best Sir, I would 

not exchange the physical sensations, the mere sense of 
animal being, which belongs to a man who totally refrains 
from all that can intoxicate his brain or derange his ner- 
vous structure — the elasticity with which he bounds from 
his couch in the morning, the sweet repose it yields him at 
night — the feeling with which he drinks in, through his clear 
eyes, the beauty and grandeur of surrounding nature, — I say, 
sir, I would not exchange my conscious being as a strictly 
temperance man, the sense of renovated youth — the glad play 
with which my pulses beat healthful music, the bounding 
vivacity with which my life-blood courses its exulting way 
through every fibre of my frame — the communion high 



230 THE WHITE ANGEL 

which my healthful eye and ear now hold with all the gor- 
geous universe of God — the splendor of the morning, the 
softness of the evening sky — the waters, with all the grand 
associations of external nature, reopened to the first avenues 
of sense: no, sir, though poverty dogged me — though scorn 
pointed its slow fingers at me as I passed — though want and 
destitution and every element of earthly misery, save only 
crime, met my waking eye from day to day, — not for the 
brightest and noblest wreath that ever encircled a states- 
man's brow — not if some angel commissioned from heaven, 
or some demon rather sent fresh from hell, to test the resist- 
ing strength of virtuous resolution, should tempt me, both 
with all the wealth and all the honors which a world can 
bestow — not for all that time or earth can give, would I 
cast from me this precious pledge of a liberated mind, this 
talisman against intemperance, and plunge again into the 
dangers that once beset my path. So help me heaven, sir, 
I would spurn beneath my feet all the gifts the universe 
could offer, and live and die as I am, poor but sober." 

No more eloquent and finished address was ever delivered 
in the interest of temperance, and none that ever more 
thrilled and captivated both hearers and readers. Mr. Mar- 
shall now entered upon a course of temperance lectures, one 
of his noblest addresses being delivered at the sixth anni- 
versary of the American Temperance Union in the Broad- 
way Tabernacle, New York. 

In company with Governor Briggs he lectured the next 
evening at the Greene Street M. E. Church, at which the 
Washingtonians had made their first appearance in New 
York. Here they both delivered thrilling orations. A 
striking instance of Mr. Marshall's services in the cause 
of temperance is that told of the enthusiastic joy and grati- 
tude of a mother whose son was saved from a career of drunk- 
enness by his efforts. The overjoyed woman baptized her 



OF THE WORLD. 2$ I 

returned and redeemed son with her tears, and caressed him 
with her kisses, while thanking Mr. Marshall in such lan- 
guage as only a grateful mother could use. He wrote to her 
in reply these eloquent and feeling words: "I, too, have a 
mother, and if she knew a man through whom I had been 
plucked as a brand from the burning, how would her prayer 
go up for him to the throne of God day and night! And she 
does offer up her blessings to the Most High. She writes 
in her letters to me that she considers my reformation as 
through the direct agency of God himself, and her voice is 
raised in continual thanksgiving and praise to the Father 
of mercies. Oh, to be instrumental in doing just such good 
to others, I do believe I would quit Congress, the bar, and 
everything else, and turn circuit-rider and preach through 
the country." 

We have particularly given these words, and the above 
extract from Mr. Marshall's address, as evidence of the earn- 
estness of the man, and more particularly to indicate how 
firm are the chains which strong drink wraps round its vic- 
tims. It would hardly be believed that a man with such 
feelings and sentiments could again become a slave to the 
terrible appetite from which he had escaped, yet such is the 
record of Thomas F. Marshall. His unquenched desire for 
stimulants was at first satisfied by tobacco, which ere long 
he used to excess. Then a yielding to the thirst for drink 
followed, and he became a more helpless captive to it than 
ever before. It seems incredible that of a man who could 
use the words we have quoted, and who had occupied so ex- 
alted a position, it could be said by one who knew him well: 
" Eighteen years rolled away and I met in Main street, Pough- 
keepsie, a ragged, filthy, miserably-clad, houseless vagabond. 
He was as dirty as he could possibly be. He was an object 
of pity and disgust at the same time. Who can it be ? The 
Hon. Thomas F. Marshall, but oh! how fallen!" 



232 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



The discovery that he had sunk to this vile condition 
rallied some of his old friends around him, who cleansed 
him and procured him new clothes. For the time being 
he became something of his old self, and was sufficiently 
reformed and sobered to deliver the Fourth-of-July oration 
in Poughkeepsie in i860. This oration was full of his former 
power, the final gleam of a light that was soon to be quenched 
in darkness and shame. 



Soon afterward the orator went South. 



fell again into his 




The Slave to Strong Drink. 



old habits, and ere long became the tenant of a drunkard's 
grave. No more sad and terrible fall has ever been recorded 
in the annals of intemperance, nor has any lesson ever been 
given fuller of warning to all who fancy they can play at 
will with the thirst for strong drink. " At the last it biteth 



OF THE WORLD. 233 

like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." Its fetters are 
intangible, but no bonds of iron were ever riveted more 
firmly. There is no proclamation of emancipation for those 
who are slaves to appetite. Their freedom, if attained, must 
be through their own strength alone, and few who have once 
fully yielded to the insinuating thirst ever become wholly 
free again. 

GEORGE BRIGGS. 

In regard to this prominent member of the Congressional 
Total- Abstinence Society, of whom we have spoken in con- 
nection with Mr. Marshall, an anecdote told by him in his 
temperance addresses will suffice. He speaks of one mem- 
ber of Congress who was always rallying him about the 
Congressional Temperance Society. 

" 'Briggs,' he used to say, 'I'm going to join your temper- 
ance society as soon as my demijohn is empty. ' But just before 
it became empty he always filled it again. At one time, 
toward the close of the session, he said to me: 'I'm going 
to sign the pledge when I get home. I am in earnest, ' con- 
tinued he. 'My demijohn is nearly empty, and I'm not 
going to fill it again. ' He spoke with such an air of serious- 
ness as I had not before observed, and it impressed me, and 
I asked him what it meant — what had changed his feelings. 

u 'Why,' said he, 'I had a short time since a visit from 
my brother, who stated to me a fact that more deeply im- 
pressed and affected me than anything I recollect to have 
heard upon the subject in any temperance speech I ever 
heard or read. 

" 4 In my neighborhood is a gentleman of my acquaint- 
ance, well educated, who once had some property, but is 
now reduced — poor. He has a beautiful and lovely wife — a 
lady of cultivation and refinement — and a most charming 
daughter. 



234 THE WHITE ANGEL 

' ' ' This gentleman had become decidedly intemperate in 
his habits, and had fairly alarmed his friends in regard to 
him. At one time, when a number of his former associates 
were together, they counselled as to what could be done for 
him. Finally, one of them said to him, "Why don't you 
send your daughter away to a certain distinguished school ?' ' 
which he named. — " Oh, I cannot," said he. " It is out of 
the question. I am not able to bear the expense. Poor girl! 
I wish I could." — "Well," said his friend, "if you will sign 
the temperance pledge, I will be at all expense of her attend- 
ing school for one year." — "What does this mean?" said 
he. ' ' Do you think me in danger of becoming a drunk- 
ard?" — "No matter about that now," said his friend, "but 
I will do as I said." — "And I," said another, "will pay the 
rent of your farm for a year if you will sign the pledge." — 
"Well, these offers are certainly liberal, but what do they 
mean ? Do you think me in danger of becoming a drunk- 
ard? What can it mean? But, gentlemen, in view of your 
liberality I will make an offer: I will sign if you will." 

"'This was a proposition they had not considered, and 
were not very well prepared to meet ; but for his sake they 
said they would, and did sign, and he with them. 

" ' Now for the first time the truth poured into his mind, 
and he saw his condition, and sat down bathed in tears. 

" ' "Now," said he, "gentlemen, you must go and com- 
municate these facts to my wife. Poor woman! I know 
she will be glad to hear it, but I cannot tell her." 

" 'Two of them started for that purpose. The lady met 
them at the door, pale and trembling with emotion. 

"'"What," she inquired, "is the matter? What has 
happened to my husband?" 

" ' They bade her dismiss her fears, assuring her that they 
had come to bring her tidings of her husband, but good 
tidings, such as she would be glad to hear. 



OF THE WORLD. 235 

" ' "Your husband has signed the temperance pledge — 
yes, signed in good faith." 

"'The joyous news nearly overcame her; she trembled 
with excitement, wept freely, and clasping her hands devo- 
tionally she looked up to heaven and thanked God for the 
happy change. "Now," said she, "I have a husband as 
he once was in the days of our early love." 

" ' But this was not what moved me,' said the gentleman. 
1 There was in the same vicinity another gentleman — a gen- 
erous, noble soul — married young — married well — into a 
charming family, and the flower of it. His wine-drink- 
ing habits had aroused the fears of his friends, and one 
day, when several of them were together, one said to 
another, ' l Let us sign the pledge. " "I will do it if you 
will," said one to another, till all had agreed to it, and the 
thing was done. 

"'This gentleman thought it rather a small business, 
and felt a little sensitive about revealing to his wife what 
he had done. But on returning home he said to her, 

" ' "Mary, my dear, I have done what I fear will dis- 
please you." — "Well, what is it?" — "Why, I have signed 
the temperance pledge." — "Have you ?" — " Yes, I certainly 
have. ' ' 

" ' Watching his manner as he replied, and reading in it 
sincerity, she entwined her arms around his neck, laid 
her head upon his bosom, and burst into tears. Her hus- 
band was deeply affected by this conduct of his wife, and 
said: 

" ' "Mary, don't weep; I did not know it would afflict 
you so, or I would not have done it. I will go and take 
my name off immediately. " 

" ' "Take your name off?" said she. " No, no! let it be 
there. I shall now have no more solicitude in reference to 
your becoming a drunkard. I shall spend no more wake- 



236 



THE WHITE ANGEL 




A Happy Wife. 



ful midnight hours. I shall no more steep my pillow in 
tears." 

"'Now, for the first time truth shone upon his mind^ 



OF THE WORLD. 237 

and he folded to his bosom his young and beautiful wife, 
and wept with her. 

" 'Now, Briggs, I can't stand these facts, and I am going 
to sign the pledge. ' ' ' 

CHARLES JEWETT. 

One of the most brilliant and effective temperance lec- 
turers of the period in question was Dr. Charles Jewett, a 
man with an unfailing fund of wit, argument, and illustra- 
tion, and who introduced with telling effect into his lectures 
the results of the experiments of doctors and scientists on 
alcohol and its influence on the human body. His orations 
were full ones in the truest sense, and supplied a multitude 
of facts to the other temperance orators of his day. 

To quote from the Rev. T. L. Cuyler: " He was a typical 
Yankee — one of the best specimens that Connecticut ever 
sent forth from the land of the Beechers, the Bushnells, the 
Buckinghams, and the Bacons. His keen flashing eye 
kindled an audience, and his keen incisive wit smote like 

a Damascus blade The quiet chuckle with which he 

would conclude one of his telling hits always sent a ripple 
of laughter over his auditors. No advocate of temperance 
has ever compressed more sound common sense into his 
speeches and writings than Charles Jewett. He was the 
reservoir from which many a popular lecturer filled his 
buckets; and if our reform had always been conducted on 
the lines which his sagacity approved, we should have been 
saved from no small amount of financial blundering, and 
short-lived, sensational devices. The best proof of the inher- 
ent vitality of the temperance enterprise is that it has sur- 
vived so many fools and outlived so much fanaticism and 
extravagance. ' ' 

Dr. Jewett was a native of Connecticut, the descendant 
of an old Puritan family, and a man of remarkable native 



238 THE WHITE ANGEL 

powers of oratory while his faculty of imitation and mimic- 
ry was extraordinary. He was early stirred up to the 
necessity of temperance reform, and began to lecture on 
the subject at a period when his advocacy not only inter- 
fered with his business as a physician, but placed him in 
serious danger of personal violence. But his indomitable 
will was backed up by unusual physical powers, and he 
was not to be intimidated. 

This was about 1830, a period in which even temperance- 
men felt at full liberty to indulge in wine and cider. Dr. 
Jewett was cured of this habit by the following incidents. 
He gave up wine in consequence of a brief interview with 
a drunken individual named Ben Johnson. 

" 'Hallo, Ben, I want to see you,' cried the doctor one 
day on meeting him. Ben stopped in the road and turned 
about. c I want you to abandon your gin and join our tem- 
perance society. What say you ?' 

1 i Ben grunted out something that the doctor did not under- 
stand. 

' ' ' You know the fiery stuff does you no good, but a great 
deal of hurt. Come, now, give it up and join us.' 

" 'Don't you drink wine, doctor?' Ben finally inquired. 

u ( Why, yes,' answered the doctor; ' but what has that to 
do with gin ?' 

' "Why do you drink wine instead of water?' said Ben. 

" ( Well,' replied the doctor, ' when I have been out riding 
for hours, and have been broken of my rest, and feel ex- 
hausted from excessive labor, a glass of wine refreshes me. ' 

' ( ' That is it, doctor. You are right, ' shouted Ben. ' When 
I have been chopping or sledding wood all day in the cold, 
and come home tired and chilled through, a glass of gin 
refreshes me wonderfully.' " 

Dr. Jewett drank no wine after listening to Ben Johnson's 
temperance lecture. 



OF THE WORLD. 239 

One good story of an amusing circumstance that occurred 
during his lecturing career is worth repeating: 

' ' Dr. Jewett had engaged to speak in the evening at W 

in Massachusetts, and, having no acquaintances in town, 
put up at the hotel. Among those who visited the bar dur- 
ing the afternoon was a Captain A , who kept himself 

about half-seas over, and, remaining in the bar-room, drank 
about once an hour. Another was Squire H — — , a stout man 
of about fifty, whose manner indicated that he felt his im- 
portance, and as often as he came for his drink — and it was 
pretty frequently during the afternoon — he cast a look of 
contempt upon Captain A , whom he regarded as a miser- 
able drunkard, though he did not swallow half as much 
liquor as himself. The captain noticed the contemptuous 
looks of the squire, and resolved to be even with him when 
opportunity should afford; for he felt that he was as good a. 
man as he, although, being weaker, he could not carry off 

steadily as much whiskey. Captain A was a genial good 

fellow naturally, a perfect gentleman in his manner even, 
when tipsy, and a ready wit withal. During the afternoon 
he formed an acquaintance with Dr. Jewett, had a long talk 
with him, and concluded to accept the doctor's invitation to 
attend the lecture. The hall was filled. Captain A — — sat 
on one of the front seats and listened respectfully, though he 
was considerably under the influence of liquor. When the 
lecture had ended he rose, hat in hand, and, hardly able to 
stand steadily without support, spoke as follows: 

"'Fellow-citizens, the speaker has, in the conclusion of 
his interesting (hie) discourse, made an appeal to the drunk- 
ards. Well, it's all right, and (hie) reasonable, and I have 
nothing to say against it. Now, I don't know but I'm the 
only (hie) drunkard there is in the room, and I hope I am; 
but (and with this he turned partly around and cast his 
eye over the room) — but, Squire H , where are you?' 



240 THE WHITE ANGEL 

"A roar of laughter showed that this hard hit at the 
squire was fully appreciated aud keenly relished by the 
audience. Years have since passed, but the recollection 
of that evening, the doctor's lecture, and this laughable 
conclusion have not faded from the memory of the people 
of W .■" 

OTHER LECTURERS. 

The Rev. Edward T. Taylor — or Father Taylor, as he was 
familiarly called — the famous sailor preacher of Boston, was 
an active and ardent advocate of temperance, and some of 
his orations were highly effective. His wit and humor 
were always ready additions to his argument. We may 
give an illustration of both. The former is well indicated 
in his answer to a drunkard who began hissing during one 
of his lectures. The quick-witted speaker pointed him out 
to the audience, and said in his peculiar telling manner, 
"There's a red nose got into hot water. Don't you hear 
it hiss?" 

An instance of his racy humor is the following: At one 
of his prayer-meetings a black man rose in a rear seat and 
spoke briefly but effectively. When he sat down Father 
Taylor exclaimed: U I knew we should have a refreshing 
shower when I saw that black cloud rising." 

There is one example of Mr. Taylor's oratory, so indica- 
tive of his manner, and ending in such a flash of genuine 
wit, that it is well worth repeating. It forms part of a tem- 
perance lecture delivered at Charlestown, Mass., almost 
under the shadow of the Bunker Hill Monument. Fol- 
lowing a vigorous appeal, he said: 

' ' Your poorhouses are full, and your courts and prisons 
are filled, with victims of this infernal rum-traffic, and your 
houses are full of sorrow, and the hearts of your wives and 
mothers; and yet the system is tolerated. Yes! and when 



OF THE WORLD. 241 

we ask some men what is to be done about it, they tell you 
you can't stop it! No, you can't stop it! and yet" (darting 
across the platform and pointing in the direction of the 
monument, he exclaimed in a voice that pierced one's ears 
like a trumpet) "there is Bunker Hill! and you say you 
can't stop it; and up yonder is Lexington and Concord, 
where your fathers fought for the right and bled and died, 
and you look on those monuments and boast of the hero- 
ism of your fathers, and then tell us we must submit to be 
taxed and tortured by the rum business, and we can't stop 
it! No! and yet" (drawing himself up to his full height 
and expanding his naturally broad chest, as though the 
words he would utter had blocked up the usual avenues of 
speech, and were about to force their way out by an explo- 
sion, he exclaimed in a sort of whispered scream) ' ' your 
fathers — your patriotic fathers — -could make a cup of tea 
for his Britannic Majesty out of a whole cargo — and you 
can't cork up a gin-jug! Ha!" 

George Haydock, another well-known lecturer, had been 
one of the worst drunkards of Hudson, N. Y. His reforma- 
tion was effected in a peculiar manner. He had been em- 
ployed to blast rocks near that city. Working at this labor 
when in a state of intoxication, he managed to explode a 
heavy charge of gunpowder before he had time to get away 
from its vicinity. The natural result was that he was hurled 
fifteen feet into the air, and was so mangled by the explosion 
that his life hung for weeks in doubt. He finally recovered 
— maimed and sober. He was minus an eye and a leg. It 
is doubtful if any less heroic medicine could have cured him 
of drink. His mode of expressing the accident was the 
following: "See what I have suffered in the service of 
King Alcohol. He knocked out one of my skylights and 
knocked off one of my understandings." 

16 



242 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



This retired veteran in the service of rum became an 
effective lecturer from the Washingtonian standpoint. We 
introduce his name here mainly for the purpose of repeating 
one of his good stories. 

"At a temperance meeting one evening," he says, u a 
man whose appearance would have been respectable had 
he been sober made some disturbance, and being much in- 
toxicated it was proposed to put him out. To this I objected, 




^c 



The Man with the Jugs. 

saying I would get his name to the pledge and we would 
yet make him president of a temperance society. He, how- 
ever, after listening a while, went out, muttering and threat- 
ening as he went. 

" The next morning the same man appeared in the village 



OF THE WORLD. 243 

with two rum-jugs swinging on the sides of his horse; stop- 
ping between two rumshops, he set down his jugs; then 
taking up one of them, he repaired to one of the shops and 
asked the proprietor if he had cider brandy. 4 Yes, ' was 
the answer, ' but it is rather new. ' 

" He then, raising his jug high in the air, said, i This jug 
has cost me fifteen hundred dollars! I now swear eternal 
enmity to rum and rumsellers;' and, smashing the jug upon 
the doorstep, he turned to the other shop with the other jug 
and went through a similar oath and ceremony. He then 
brought forth a third jug, and repeated the same at an 
apothecary's shop where spirits were only kept for medicine. 

" After this he signed the pledge, and on the following 
week was made president of the Howard Total-Abstinence 
Society. After he had taken the chair and the addresses 
were gone through, eighty-one persons signed the society's 
pledge. ' ' 

There were numerous other able and effective lecturers of 
that period, but those we have named will serve as examples, 
both of the method and character of the orators of the Wash- 
ingtonian era and of the illustrative stories and flashes of wit 
with which their lectures were plentifully interlarded. They 
represented a phase of the temperance reform which has now 
passed away. 



- 



CHAPTER X. 

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORDERS. 

f^HE period at which we have now arrived was marked 
-*- by some important changes in the mode of carrying 
forward the temperance reform, and by the adoption of the 
first steps of the system now operative. Movements like the 
Washingtonian and the Father Mathew crusades could not 
well be other than temporary in their results. Their good 
effects were due to the arousing of emotional enthusiasm, 
and such a condition, while often extraordinary in its effects, 
is never permanent. As enthusiasm dies out the old habits 
are likely to return. Those reforms alone persist in which 
reason is the controlling element; those which appeal to the 
feelings only, and strive to arouse men through their emo- 
tions, produce often most remarkable results, but these re- 
sults are apt to vanish with the dying out of the enthusiasm 
that gave rise to them. 

Yet the Washingtonian movement left one excellent result 
in the formation of the beneficial temperance societies which 
replaced the old organizations, and which are still active 
agents in temperance reform. The first of these was founded 
somewhat in advance of the period in question at Salford in 
the county of Lancaster, England, in 1835. It took the title 
of the Independent Order of Rechabites, and was similar in 
general character to the Odd Fellows and other societies of 
later date, giving relief to sick members and aid to the 
family of a deceased member. It restricted its member- 
244 



OF THE WORLD. 245 

ship to healthy persons between the ages of fifteen and fifty. 
This order still exists in England, and is of excellent repute. 
It was introduced into America in 1842, and spread with 
such rapidity that at one time it numbered over one hun- 
dred thousand members in this country. It is now reduced 
here to about four thousand. 

THE SONS OF TEMPERANCE. 

In the year 1842 a more important organization, the order 
of Sons of Temperance, was founded in the United States. 
It was, as we have said, a direct outgrowth of the excite- 
ment produced by the Washingtonian lecturers, and orig- 
inated when John Hawkins was reforming multitudes of 
drunkards in New England, Pollard, Wright, and others 
were rousing up the Middle States, Vickars and Small were 
proselytizing in the West, and the South was in a blaze of 
excitement over the temperance reform. It was during this 
period of public awakening to the evils of drunkenness that 
a few far-seeing Washingtonians designed and organized a 
new association, beneficial in principle and based on the 
model of the secret beneficial societies then in existence. 

The first meeting was held at Teetotaller's Hall in New 
York on September 29, 1842. Sixteen men composed this 
meeting, and combined themselves into New York Division, 
No. 1, of the Sons of Temperance. The officers of this di- 
vision were: Worthy Patriarch, Daniel H. Sands; Worthy 
Associate, Ephraim L,. Snow; Recording Scribe, John W. 
Oliver; Financial Scribe, James Bale; and Treasurer, George 
McKibben. 

The meetings of the society were to be secret, and an im- 
pressive ritual and initiation ceremony were devised. Its 
secrecy, however, went no further than to keep private its 
personal business details, and its whole purpose was, as de^ 
clared in its records, to shield its members from the evils of 



246 THE WHITE ANGEL 

intemperance ; to afford mutual assistance in case of sickness ; 
and to elevate their characters as men. The pledge required 
to be taken was, and still is, the following: "I will neither 
make, buy, sell, nor use as a beverage any spirituous or malt 
liquors, wine, or cider." 

That the time was ripe for some such action was evident 
to all men capable of seeing beyond the immediate present. 
The early temperance movement, which had swept the coun- 
try like a flood, had lost its force by 1838, and three-fourths 
of the reformed drunkards had relapsed into their old habits. 
There was good reason to believe that the Washingtonian 
wave of reform would sink away in the same manner. Some 
method of holding the reformed men other than those pre- 
viously attempted was evidently requisite, and the beneficial 
idea proved a happy device. 

It took the public attention from the start, and the new 
order spread with the greatest rapidity. Numerous local 
divisions were quickly organized; grand divisions were soon 
afterward formed in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Penn- 
sylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and on the 17th 
of June, 1844, twenty-one months after the first meeting, a 
National Division of the Sons of Temperance was instituted, 
with Daniel H. Sands for its chief officer. Its jurisdiction 
embraced six grand divisions, seventy-one subordinate di- 
visions, and about six thousand members. 

By the end of 1845 there were fourteen grand divisions, 
six hundred and fifty subordinate divisions, and forty thou- 
sand members. During the succeeding year the enthusiasm 
in favor of the new society was so great that by the close 
of the year its membership had increased to one hundred 
thousand. The prosperity of the Sons of Temperance culmi- 
nated about 1850, when the order comprised thirty-five grand 
divisions, five thousand five hundred and sixty-three subordi- 
nate divisions, and two hundred and thirty-two thousand 



OF THE WORLD. 247 

two hundred and thirty-three members. The activity of 
other temperance organizations and the excited feeling pre- 
ceding the coming war now checked the advance of the 
order, and in 1864 its membership had fallen to fifty-five 
thousand seven hundred and thirty-six. 

The society of Sons of Temperance was carried in 1846 
to Canada, where it made rapid progress. In 1847 a division 
was founded in London, England. In that country it pro- 
gressed slowly, having at the end of eight years thirty-six 
divisions and one thousand members. Since then it has 
made a very satisfactory advance in Great Britain, while in 
Australia there are two national and about six hundred local 
divisions with thirty-five thousand members. 

In the United States the civil, war nearly swept the order 
out of existence in the South and greatly reduced its strength 
in the North. Other causes affected its prosperity; among 
them, the business depression from 1873 to 1878. Since then 
the society has been advancing again, and numbered in 1888 
seventy-eight thousand nine hundred and thirteen members 
and fifteen hundred and sixty-five divisions. Up to that 
time its total membership in America had been two mil- 
lion five hundred thousand, and the money collected and 
disbursed nearly $9,000,000. 

Concerning the objects of the order of Sons of Temper- 
ance, we may quote from a paper by Samuel W. Hodges, 
Most Worthy Scribe : ' ' Up to this time all labors had been 
in the line of what is called moral suasion. The abolition 
of the rumshop had not been thought of, but the organiza- 
tion of determined men, having in view the salvation of 
their associates from the curse of drink, soon brought with 
it the question, Would it not be better to try to remove the 
temptation from the men than to spend all the time in keep- 
ing the men from temptation?" 

General Cary, the chief officer of the order, said in 1849: 



248 THE WHITE ANGEL 

1 ' We must have a nobler, higher, holier ambition than to 
reform one generation of drunkards after another. We must 
seal up the fountain whence flows the desolating stream of 
death. ' ' Since that time the order has been an active centre 
of the operations tending toward prohibitory legislation. Its 
members declare, ' ' That we desire, will have, and will en- 
force laws in our respective localities for the suppression of 
this man-destroying, God-dishonoring business." 

At first membership in the order was restricted to white 
males of eighteen years of age and over, but in 1854 a highly 
popular change took place in the admission of the wives, 
daughters, and sisters of members as visitors. In 1866 all 
distinctions were abandoned, and women were admitted to 
full membership in the order on the same terms as men. 

In the same year colored members were admitted, an ordi- 
nance being adopted which provided for the formation of 
subordinate and grand lodges of colored people and for their 
representation in the National Division. 

THE INDEPENDENT ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. 

In 1 85 1 there originated in Central New York a new 
temperance organization which was destined to become of 
high value to the cause it represented. The beneficiary sys- 
tem had been found to have certain defects in its operation, 
which it was hoped to avoid in a society organized for the 
sole purpose of temperance reform. The Order of Good 
Templars was therefore constituted with the single object 
of opposing intemperance by every available means. Its 
standard was of the most radical type, embracing — 

' ' Total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors as a bev- 
erage. 

' ' No license in any form or under any circumstances for 
the sale of such liquors as a beverage. 

"The absolute prohibition of the manufacture, importa- 



OF THE WORLD. 249 

tion, and sale of intoxicating liquors for such purposes — 
prohibition by the will of the people expressed in due form 
of law, with the penalties deserved for a crime of such 
enormity. 

"The creation of a healthy public opinion upon the sub- 
ject by the active dissemination of truth in all the modes 
known to an enlightened philanthropy. 

u The election of good, honest men to administer the laws. 

"Persistence in efforts to save individuals and communi- 
ties from so direful a scourge, against all forms of opposition 
and difficulty, uutil our success is complete and universal." 

In the pledge of the society total abstinence is required, 
not only from intoxicating liquors, but from sweet cider and 
unfermented wine, or from the juice of the apple, grape, and 
berry in any state, as a beverage. It is held that fermenta- 
tion takes place so readily that only thus can the danger of 
drinking fermented liquor be avoided. 

One further important feature in the pledge of the Good 
Templars is that it requires total abstinence for life. This 
is the leading principle of the organization in which it 
differs from most others — a complete and permanent reform. 
11 lifelong is the Good Templar's pledge." 

Another purpose of the organization is to bring the young 
into its fold of membership, and so train the rising genera- 
tion as to implant habits and ideas of temperance in the 
minds of the coming American. Everything is done to 
make the meetings of the order pleasant occasions, in which 
ladies and gentlemen, mature persons and children, may 
meet as within the home-circle, surrounded by genial and 
healthful influences, and guarded against the temptations 
of which the ordinary paths of life are so full. 

The revenue of the order is used to print and circulate 
tracts and papers and to sustain lecturers in the field. Com- 
mittees are appointed to visit the sick, distribute temperance 



250 THE WHITE ANGEL 

literature, call public meetings, and by every useful method 
to advocate and advance the cause of temperance. 

The development of this order was rapid, and it is to-day 
more widespread than any of its fellow-organizations. Orig- 
inated in the summer of 1851, in a few years it had extend- 
ed into Canada and ten or twelve of the States of the Union. 
The Grand ,Lodge of New York was recognized as its head 
until 1855, when representatives from ten Grand podges 
met at Cleveland., Ohio, and instituted the Right Worthy 
Grand Lodge, the supreme head of the order. 

Since that date the Order of Good Templars has made its 
way throughout the civilized world, and lodges exist not 
only in every State and Territory of the Union and every 
province of Canada, but in England, Scotland, and Ire- 
land; in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and other countries of 
Europe; in India, China, and Japan; in Africa, Australia, 
New Zealand, and Tasmania; in the Sandwich Islands and 
in many other oceanic islands. Its ritual lias been trans- 
lated into ten or twelve different languages. Throughout 
the world the same ritual is used, the same songs are sung, 
and the same password is employed, it being changed all 
over the world every three months. 

It is claimed that since the origin of this order more than 
five millions of persons have been initiated, of whom fully 
four hundred thousand were hard drinkers. At least half 
of the latter have kept their pledge and become active 
workers in the temperance cause. By 1875 the order had 
reached its height of prosperity, its membership then num- 
bering 735, cod. In the succeeding year an unfortunate con- 
troversy arose on the question of admitting colored mem- 
bers. It ended in the secession of the British branch of the 
order, then very strong, and the erection of two separate 
Orders of Good Templars. 

In 1886 a conference was held between the officers of the 



OF THE WORLD. 25 I 

two bodies, in which a satisfactory basis of reunion was 
decided upon. On May 24, 1887, a convention of the 
supreme lodges of the two branches was held at Saratoga 
Springs, N. Y., and on the 26th they reunited, on terms 
agreeable to both parties. Hon. John B. Finch, the supe- 
rior officer of the American branch, was chosen as the Right 
Worthy Grand Templar of the reunited order. As com- 
bined, the membership of the order in 1888 was 483,103: 
it is said to be at present rapidly increasing in numbers. 

This order has been one of the most powerful and suc- 
cessful agents in the temperance reform movement. Its 
principles of total abstinence for the individual and total pro- 
hibition for the State have been ardently and effectively car- 
ried out, and it has had much to do with creating and sus- 
taining the strong sentiment now existing against the liquor- 
traffic. Its lectures, its disseminated literature, its mission- 
ary efforts in foreign lands, have all been attended with 
encouraging success, and the order yet retains all of its 
youthful vitality. 

At the outset woman was placed on a complete equality 
with man in the Good Templar organization. She is eligi- 
ble to every office in the order, and nearly every position 
has been filled by women, including that of the chief office 
in several Grand Lodges. 

From the start, all persons, without distinction of sex, race, 
or nationality, above twelve years of age, were admitted to 
full membership. With the purpose of bringing in younger 
children, and training them from their earliest years in 
principles of total abstinence, a junior order, entitled the 
" Juvenile Templars," was instituted several years ago. It 
has spread with much rapidity, and embraced in 1888 a 
membership of 139,951. Its members are pledged against 
tobacco and profanity, as well as against intoxicating 
liquors. 



252 THE WHITE ANGEL 

In 1858 an offshoot from the Canadian Grand Lodge gave 
rise to the " British- American Order of Good Templars." 
At a later date it dropped the word "American" from its 
title, and in 1876 consolidated with several smaller organi- 
zations in Great Britain, into the "United Temperance 
Association." This has now lodges throughout the British 
provinces. 

TEMPERANCE AMONG CHILDREN. 

The first recorded effort to enlist the children of the coun- 
try in the cause of temperance was a juvenile temperance 
meeting of the pupils of the Boston grammar schools on 
February 28, 1837. About 2500 children attended, and the 
exercises were of an entertaining character. Addresses 
were delivered, temperance songs sung, documents and 
tracts distributed, and other means taken to enlist the 
interest of the young audience. 

The next we hear of juvenile temperance is in 1839, when 
the children's "Cold-water Army " seems to have been for 
some time in existence, since its Fourth-of-July celebrations 
are spoken of as ordinary occurrences, not as something new. 
In Baltimore, on July 4th of that year, 2300 children ' ' belong- 
ing to the several juvenile temperance societies marched in 
procession." During the succeeding years the membership 
of the Cold-water Army rapidly increased. By 1844 nearly 
30,000 children were reported enrolled in New Jersey, and 
large numbers in the other Middle and the New England 
States, Massachusetts being in the lead. 

There is reason to believe, however, that this work among 
the children was limited to display and parade, and, though 
the pledge was signed, little effort was made to instil tem- 
perance ideas in the youthful mind. In consequence, we 
find the interest in these exercises falling off, so that from 
1845 they rapidly declined. 



OF THE WORLD. 253 

The Sons of Temperance first organized a children's branch 
in 1845, when lodges of juvenile Sons of Temperance were 
established at Catasauqua and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It 
was not, however, until 1846 that a successful effort of this 
kind was made. Wyndham H. Stokes of Germantown, Penn- 
sylvania, aroused by seeing some boys in possession of a quan- 
tity of liquor and in an intoxicated condition, arranged a 
ritual and constitution, and on December 6, 1846, organized 
Germantown Section, No. 1, Temperance Cadets, which title 
was soon changed to Cadets of Temperance. This effort 
met with instant success. The second section was organized 
on January 26, 1847, in Philadelphia, by Robert M. Foust, 
the G. W. P. of the Sons of Temperance, who had become 
deeply interested by attending a meeting of the German- 
town Section. The new order progressed so rapidly that by 
the end of a year and a half it existed in twenty-two States, 
with over three hundred sections and twelve thousand mem- 
bers. 

In 1853 a dispute arose which caused the secession of 
Good Samaritan Section and its erection into an independ- 
ent order, now styled the Junior Templars. Several efforts 
have been made since to reunite the two orders, but without 
avail. In 1880 a section composed of girls was formed, and 
by 1885 eleven such sections existed. It is estimated that 
the several branches of this order now embrace about ten 
thousand members. 

"To gather the boys into societies, placed under the 
charge of experienced temperance men and taught the 
principles and lessons of our order before a taste for liquor 
has been formed, and to have impressed upon their minds 
and hearts the evil resulting from a life of intemperance, 
has been the means of saving hundreds of our young men 
from becoming addicted to the vice of using or tasting in- 
toxicating liquors. 



254 THE WHITE ANGEL 

i l Why is it that in every community there are men who 
can proudly boast of never having tasted liquor of any kind ? 
It is because in their youth they were educated in the prin- 
ciples of total abstinence. If in a few cases a boy can be 
taken in his early years and educated to be a total abstainer,, 
it can be done in many cases. ' ' * 

We have already spoken of the juvenile organization 
under the auspices of the Good Templars. There remains 
to mention an English organization of the same character, 
the Band of Hope, founded in the city of I^eeds in 1847. 
This society rapidly extended, and in 1855 there was formed 
the United Kingdom Band of Hope Union for the purpose 
of promoting total abstinence among the young by the work 
of the Band of Hope or any other available means. The 
progress of this association has far surpassed that of any 
similar society in America. It is said that in Great Britain 
and Ireland there are now six thousand Bands of Hope, with 
over eight hundred thousand members and thirty-five thou- 
sand adults as officers and controllers. Children of both 
sexes over seven years of age are admitted to membership. 
The order exists in this country, and the Juvenile Templars 
of California, numbering seventeen thousand one hundred 
and eighty, have adopted the Band of Hope work and 
organization. 

OTHER TEMPERANCE ORGANIZATIONS. 

In 1845 was organized the order of Templars of Honor 
and Temperance, composed of prominent members of the 
Sons of Temperance, and intended as an advanced degree 
of that order. It was designed to arouse the order to greater 
activity and ambition, and form a sort of knighthood to 
which all might aspire. By January, 1846, it had so devel- 
oped that representatives from twelve temples met that year 

* Charles H. Miller : One Hundred Years of Temperance. 



OF THE WORLD. 255 

in New York and organized a Grand Temple. In the same 
year, however, the National Division of the Sons of Tem- 
perance declined to recognize this new society as a higher 
degree of the order, and it took the position of a separate 
society. A National Temple was organized on November 
5, 1846. 

In 1849 the independence of the new order, which had 
existed since 1846, was formally declared. Signs, passwords, 
degrees, and the other methods of the older beneficial so- 
cieties were adopted, one degree, called the Social Degree, 
being opened to the wives, sisters, and daughters of Tem- 
plars. In 1855 the name of this degree was changed to So- 
cial Temple. Several other degrees were instituted, and in 
1852, as the order had spread beyond the limits of the United 
States, the National Council adopted the title of Supreme 
Council of Templars of Honor and Temperance. In 1876, 
at the thirtieth annual session, this body represented twenty- 
one grand temples, three hundred and fifty-seven subordi- 
nate temples, and a membership of sixteen thousand two 
hundred and twenty-nine. In 1886 the membership was 
reduced to eleven thousand seven. hundred and sixty-three. 
There was adopted in 1878 a life-insurance feature for the 
benefit of reformed members, who were often too poor to 
take out an ordinary insurance. This was an endowment 
plan, by which, at a nominal cost, the lives of its members 
might be insured and a provision made for their families 
after death. In 1880 a junior branch was added to the order 
for the purpose of training boys in the principles of tem- 
perance. 

In 1847 was organized in the city of New York a society 
which, while small in numbers, has done some highly effect- 
ive work. This is the Independent Order of Good Samari- 
tans and Daughters of Samaria. It was originally intended 
for white men only, but in its first year of existence it opened 



256 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



its doors to colored people, admitting them to full member- 
ship. In the next year women were admitted to full mem- 
bership and privileges. 

This society is beneficial, and in proportion to its mem- 
bership it contains a very large number of reformed persons, 




The Good Samaritan. 



it being persistent in its efforts to reclaim the inebriate, how- 
ever often he may return to his old habits. It is its main 
purpose to rescue those who, ' ' passing from Jerusalem to 
Jericho," have fallen among thieves. At present the order 
numbers about fourteen thousand members. It has a juvenile 



OF THE WORLD. 2$ J 

branch of nearly the same strength of membership, and has 
lodges in many States of the American Union and in Africa. 

Several smaller orders have arisen from time to time, to 
which we need but briefly allude. The ' ' Dashaways ' ' were 
instituted by four young men of San Francisco in 1859. 
They had met at a tavern to have a "jolly good time," 
when they suddenly resolved to dash away the flowing 
bowl and to organize a total-abstinence society. The idea 
took, and within a year nearly every city and town in Cali- 
fornia and Oregon had its young men's clubs of Dashaways. 
In the succeeding year a somewhat similar society, composed 
of young men, the "Temperance Flying Artillery, " was or- 
ganized in Chicago, and soon spread throughout Illinois. 

In 1865 the order of "Friends of Temperance," organ- 
ized to fill the place of the societies which the. war. had 
destroyed in the South, was founded at Petersburg, Va. It 
is confined to white persons, and now has about twenty 
thousand members. In the same year a separate order, 
called "Sons of the Soil," was organized for the colored 
people of the South. It has a large membership and has 
proved of high utility. 

Another organization, "The Vanguard of Freedom," 
designed for the children of the freed slaves, was founded 
in 1868, and has spread widely through the Southern States. 
This Southern activity in forming orders of temperance has 
given rise to several other associations: "The Sons of Jona- 
dab," founded at Washington in 1867; " The United Friends 
of Temperance," organized at Chattanooga in 1871; "The 
Knights of Jericho, ' ' of which we know little more than 
the name; and "The United Order of True Reformers," 
organized in 1872 among the colored people of the South. 
This last-named association at one time numbered 45,000 
members. It has now about 10,000 members, the Good 
Templars having made serious inroads upon its ranks. 



258 THE WHITE ANGEL 

There is one further association of which we may here 
speak, "The Royal Templars of Temperance," founded in 
1869 in the city of Buffalo, N. Y., as an outcome of an 
effort to enforce the Sunday-closing law of that city. For 
a number of years this order continued local, its efforts 
being mainly devoted to the distribution of temperance 
literature and the preaching of temperance sermons. In 
1876 it was made a beneficial society, and quickly afterward 
began to spread through the country. It has at present a 
membership in the United States and Canada of about 
twenty thousand persons. Up to the end of 1884 it had 
paid more than a million dollars in benefits. The order is 
gradually increasing in numbers, and has been very suc- 
cessful as a beneficial association. Its members are pledged 
to total abstinence from all that intoxicates, and to a will- 
ingness to labor in the cause of temperance. 

It will be perceived that the advocates of temperance in 
America have been fully alive to the advantages of associa- 
tion. Their leading societies, indeed, have extended through- 
out the civilized world, while the associations of no other 
country have succeeded in gaining a firm foothold on Ameri- 
can soil. In this, as in every other respect, the United 
States has led the world in the temperance reform move- 
ment. It originated here; its various steps of progress, 
with few exceptions, began and developed here; it first 
made itself felt here as a great political power; and its in- 
fluence and results here are at present far in advance of 
those of any other part of the world. We may fairly say 
that the temperance reform has been, alike in its origin and 
its development, distinctively an American movement. 

It is proper to state at this point that there are several 
important temperance associations, of recent origin, which 
have not been mentioned in this chapter, they being reserved 
for consideration in future chapters. 



OF THE WORLD. 259 

TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES ABROAD. 

Canada has been largely at one with, the United States in 
regards to associated efforts for the advancement of temper- 
ance. The Sons of Temperance, the Good Templars, and 
the other leading associations quickly crossed the borders, 
and made their way with much rapidity through the Cana- 
dian provinces. In 1869 was formed the " Canada Temper- 
ance Union," in whose declaration of principles was the 
following: " The temperance war must be fought out by 
the people at the polls." This association was merged 
in 1872 in the "Ontario Temperance and Prohibitory 
League," while similar leagues were formed in the other 
provinces. About this time the sentiment in favor of 
temperance became very active, the societies increased 
rapidly, and the feeling in favor of prohibition grew 
strong. 

The energies of the temperance party in Canada have 
been largely devoted to legal restraint. Its results in this 
direction we shall consider farther on. Since 1878 there 
has been a surprisingly rapid growth of the Women's 
Christian Temperance Union and of the Church-of-Bng- 
land Temperance Society, which have brought many thou- 
sands of new converts into the ranks, and are still doing 
excellent work. 

The American societies named have also been very influ- 
ential in Great Britain, the Sons of Temperance and the 
Good Templars being strongly represented in that country. 
In 1842 the "National Temperance Society" was organized 
in London, to take the place of some of the earlier societies. 
In 1856 it combined with the " London Temperance League ' ' 
to form the ' ' National Temperance League, ' ' a society which 
has been of the greatest utility. Similar leagues were 
founded in Ireland and Scotland. The Scottish Tem- 
perance League has been a particularly active organiza- 



260 THE WHITE ANGEL 

tion, and has distributed an immense body of temperance 
literature. Its influence has been felt not only in Scot- 
land, but throughout the world. 

In 1840 a society of great importance, the United King- 
dom Temperance and General Provident Institution, was 
organized, incited by the refusal of a life-insurance com- 
pany to insure an abstainer except at a higher rate of pre- 
mium. For some seven years this was confined to total 
abstainers, but is now opened to all persons. It is signif- 
icant, however, that its temperance section has shown a 
death-rate of twenty-seven per cent, less than the general 
section. 

The churches of Great Britain have worked actively and 
efficiently in the cause of temperance, particularly in Wales 
and Scotland. A conference of Christian ministers was held 
in Manchester in 1848, and another in 1857, when a form of 
declaration was drawn up against the liquor traffic, which 
was afterward signed by about three thousand ministers of 
all denominations. Then followed the formation of total- 
abstinence societies in connection with the Scottish Free 
Church and the United Presbyterian Church. Similar action 
was taken in England in 1862 in the formation of the Church- 
of-England Temperance Reformation Society on the basis 
of total abstinence. In 1873 this was succeeded by the 
Church-of-England Temperance Society, composed of two 
sections, one of total abstainers and one of members unwill- 
ing to take this pledge. *. The former section has been much 

* Canon Wilberforce says : " It is only a few years ago I was taking part in a 
great meeting at Sheffield in the north of England. One of the secretaries came 
up to me and said : ' I have had a very curious thing happen to me. A woman 
came to me and asked, " Is there not a great temperance meeting here to-night?" 
— I said, " Yes." — " Is it not," she asked, "upon the basis of the Church-of-Eng- 
land Temperance Society?" — I replied, " It is." — "I do hope and trust," said she, 
"my husband will know nothing about it." — I inquired, "Why?" — She replied, 
" If he goes there and hears one of your temperance reformers tell him that he 



a OF THE WORLD. 261 

the most active. Since 1862 temperance societies have been 
formed in connection with the Methodist, Presbyterian, Con- 
gregationalist, and other English religious bodies. 

The Church-of-Bngland Society, as we have said, has 
been introduced into and is doing good work in Canada. In 
the United States, after some tentative efforts, a similar so- 
ciety was organized in 1881 under the presidency of the 
bishop of Kentucky. By 1884 fifty-four bishops had pro- 
nounced in its favor, and it is making its influence felt 
throughout the whole membership of the Church. Its work 
is at present in the direction of high license, many members 
believing that this' should be thoroughly tested before prohi- 
bition is attempted. In 1885 a juvenile branch, the Knights 
of Temperance, was organized. 

In regard to the existing state of temperance organization 
in Great Britain, it may be mentioned that in addition to the 
national associations, of which some six or seven exist, there 
are three beneficiary societies — the Rechabites, the Sons of 
Temperance, and the Sons of the Phoenix. These, with 
the Good Templars, have a membership of over one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand. The work of women is achieved 
through the British Women's Temperance Association and 
the Working Women's League, while the Church-of-Eng- 
land Society has also a Women's Union. In addition to the 
Band-of-Hope Union, there are important juvenile associa- 
tions in Scotland and Ireland, and departments for the young 
in connection with several of the general societies. The 
Young Abstainers' Union seeks to promote abstinence among 
the children of the higher classes. It is estimated that nearly 

can belong to a temperance society and still partake of a little alcohol, the happi- 
ness of my home, which has been assured for two years, will be wrecked again, 
for it will give him the opportunity of stepping over the brink of safety." ' The 
only place of safety for a man who has been a drunkard is uncompromising total 
abstinence. If he departs from that, he will soon step into a drunkard's grave." 



262 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



a million children are thus brought under direct temperance 
influence in the United Kingdom. 




The London Good Samaritan. 

In addition to the above an important feature of temper- 
ance work in England is the formation of societies limited 
to the police of London and other places, to railway em- 
ployees, to the post-office clerks, etc. Active and useful 
work has been done in the army and navy, and in India 
there exists a Soldiers' Total-Abstinence Association with 
over eleven thousand soldiers on the list of members. The 
effect on their health, discipline, and general habits is said 
to be most excellent. 



CHAPTER XI 



THE EARLY LITERATURE OF TEMPERANCE. 



TN modern times no efficient and far-reaching influence 
■*■ upon the people at large can be attained without the aid 
of the press. The sermon reaches in the main only those 
who are already in agreement with its sentiments. The 
same is the case, to a large extent, with the lecture. Per- 
sonal solicitation and influence are active for good, but their 
field is necessarily limited. The printed word, on the con- 
trary, spreads indefinitely through all classes of the com- 
munity, and carries powerful arguments and effective per- 
suasions to thousands whom the direct appeals of the apos- 
tles of reform seldom reach. 

The advocates of temperance have not failed to make free 
use of this valuable auxiliary, and are doing so at present to 
an extent that must be of the highest utility to the cause. 
Millions of pages of temperance literature are now issued 
annually, and scattered broadcast through the land with 
such profusion that they must fall like winged seeds in 
thousands of places which could not otherwise be reached, 
and grow up to good resolutions in multitudes of minds. A 
word of suggestion, warning, or persuasion in the right place 
and time is often of remarkable effect, and it is unquestion- 
able that these flying sheets of good advice have borne 
abundant fruit in the reformation of numbers who would 
otherwise have sunk hopelessly into the gulf of drunken- 
ness. 

263 



264 THE WHITE ANGEL 

A brief review of the literary record of the temperance 
cause cannot but be of interest as an important feature of 
the historical development of a great modern reform. This 
literature, however, is too voluminous for us to describe in 
any detail. Only its leading characteristics can be here 
mentioned. 

The valuable paper by Dr. Rush of which we have already 
spoken, and which is usually taken as the true starting-point 
of the modern temperance reform, was preceded in America, 
at long intervals, by printed protests against the drinking 
habit. Rev. Increase Mather published two temperance ser- 
mons in 1673, and republished them in 1712. In these he 
speaks of drunkenness as u a sin and the cause of sin. Ifc 
hath no better author than the devil himself, who never was 
the author of any good, except accidentally besides his in- 
tentions and against his will, since he was a devil." In 1726 
Rev. Cotton Mather published an address to tavern-loungers, 
and in 1773 Rev. Stephen Badger advanced the theory that 
drunkards * ' ought to be taken in hand by the overseers of 
the poor. ' ' These, with a few other publications, make but 
a pitiful show of pre-Revolutionary temperance literature. 

An occasional pamphlet appeared from time to time dur- 
ing the remainder of the century, one of the most important 
of which was Remarks 07t the Nature and Bad Effects of 
Spirituous Liquors, a twelve-page tract issued in 1778 by 
Anthony Benezet, a Quaker of Philadelphia. This is of 
interest as reminding those in power, at that early date, of 
their duty ( ' to withhold this destructive man-bane either as 
parents, masters, or rulers of the people committed to their 
trust." 

In England a slender list of similar essays appeared pre- 
viously to 1785, yet when we compare the vast outflow of 
temperance literature since that period with the few stray 
leaflets of the previous century or centuries, the difference is 



OF THE WORLD. 265 

simply extraordinary. The present century is, in almost 
every direction, essentially the era of reform. 

Dr. Rush's celebrated essay, published in 1785, on The 
Effects of Ardent Spirits on the Human Mind and Rpdy, had 
been preceded by a pamphlet written by him in 1777, in 
which he warned the soldiers of the army against the use of 
alcoholic liquors. In 1788 he published an address to min- 
isters of the gospel upon Morals, in which he strongly ad- 
vocated the complete disuse of spirituous liquors either as a 
beverage or as medicine. In sickness, he declared, "they are 
better applied to the outside than to the inside of the body." 
In 1790 a volume of sermons was published in Philadelphia, 
evidently the work of a physician, and generally ascribed to 
Dr. Rush. They awakened such an interest among medical 
men as to induce them to send a memorial to Congress, ask- 
ing that such heavy duties should be laid upon distilled 
spirits as effectually to restrain their intemperate use in 
this country. 

Such is nearly all that can be said in regard to temperance 
literature before the opening of the nineteenth century. 

During the first quarter of the present century, though 
somewhat more activity in literature was shown, no decided 
progress was made. Effective sermons were preached and 
published at intervals, addresses were issued by the various 
societies, and an occasional short essay appeared, these grow- 
ing more numerous toward the end of the period named. 
Chief among their authors were Dr. Nathaniel S. Prime, Dr. 
Ebenezer Porter, Dr. Heman Humphrey, Dr. Thomas Sewall, 
Dr. Justin Edwards, Dr. Eliphalet Nott, Rev. William Collier, 
and Rev. Henry Ware, all men of excellent ability. The 
most striking publications were an appeal against the drink- 
ing usages of society by Dr. Heman Humphrey, and an ad- 
dress on the criminality of intemperance by the Rev. Henry 
Ware in 1823. 



266 THE WHITE ANGEL 

Among the effective early addresses on the temperance 
subject was the Rev. John Marsh's Putnam and the 
Wolf, a cleverly written production of immense influence. 
He himself describes its origin, as follows: 

In 1829 ne was invited to deliver an address before the 
Windham County Temperance Society, at Pomfret, Con- 
necticut. He had concluded to decline the invitation, but 
one day, on rising from dinner, he burst into loud laughter. 
"What is it that so amuses you?" asked his wife. — "I am 
going to Pomfret," he answered. — "Why," she said, "I 
thought you had given that up. What has changed your 
mind?" — "That is the place where Putnam killed the 
wolf, ' ' he replied. ' ' I will make a temperance address 
out of that — Putnam and the wolf, the wolf devouring the 
sheep, and the people out upon the hunt." He hurried to 
his study, found an account of Putnam's wolf-hunt in a 
school-book, and sat up till after midnight at his address, 
greatly pleased with the striking adaptation of the incident 
to his purpose. 

On the day 'fixed for the address the meeting-house at 
Pomfret was crowded. The wolf-den was not far off and 
descendants of Putnam dwelt near by. The speaker began 
with a description of the exciting exploit of the Revolu- 
tionary hero, and then applied the story of the wolf-hunt 
to the present hunt after an enemy who was devouring not 
sheep, but men, and who needed to be driven to his lair and 
destroyed more vigorously than any ravenous animal that 
ever lived. As he proceeded his audience were thrilled with 
emotion, and when he had finished there was a rush for a 
copy for the press. He told them they might have it if 
they would go to Hartford and procure an engraving of 
Putnam dragging the wolf from the den. This was done, 
the address published, and within a short time one hundred 
and fifty thousand copies were sold. 



OF THE WORLD. 267 

It proved one of the Happiest hits ever made in the cause 
of temperance, and has done excellent service in helping 
to kill the man-slaying wolf that has its lair within the 
rum -barrel. 

The earliest illustrated satire on the subject was Dr. 
Jewett's Death on the Striped Pig. At a military muster 
which took place in 1837 at Dedham, Massachusetts, during 
the period of the "Fifteen-Gallon Law" a rumseller pitched 
a tent on the ground, and announced in large letters an ex- 
hibition of "The Striped Pig. Admittance, six cents." 

He had painted a pig from snout to tail in stripes, which 
gave it a zebra-like appearance, and to every one who paid 
six cents to see the animal a glass of rum was handed out 
by way of refreshment. 

While the shrewd showman and his friends were chuck- 
ling over their successful evasion of the law, the sheriff of 
the county stepped in and seized on the proprietor, pig, tent, 
rum, and all, and carried them off as prisoners. 

The anti-temperance men spread this story as a good joke 
throughout the country, whereupon Dr. Jewett drew a cari- 
catured picture of the scene, which he had lithographed and 
entitled Death on the Striped Pig. The work was a very 
clever satire on the liquor traffic, and thousands of copies 
were sold. They were posted in shops and stores, on board 
fences and big trees, and for years afterward created amuse- 
ment in New England villages. Another of Jewett's litho- 
graphs represented rumsellers catching men, for whom they 
were fishing in a large pond, their hooks baited with rum- 
bottles. 

"The Striped-Pig" device is not yet abandoned by the 
persistent violators of prohibitory laws. In Kansas, Iowa, 
the Dakotas, and other Prohibition regions similar schemes 
are known locally as "blind pigs," "blind tigers," "speak- 
easies," etc. They can flourish only where the law-officers 
are cowardly or corrupt. 



2 68 THE WHITE ANGEL 

Among the many poems published in the temperance 
cause one of the most effective was the Rev. John Pier- 
pont's Lament of the Albany Brewers. It was called forth 
by a lawsuit brought by the brewers of Albany against 
B. C. Delavan, who had accused them of using the water 
of a filthy pond near the city in making their beer. He 
proved his case, too, so that the brewers had the worst of 
it on every side. 

But probably the most influential publication of this early 
period was Dr. Thomas Sewall's seven drawings of the hu- 
man stomach, to illustrate its condition in various stages 
of drunkenness. These, issued in 1841, excited great in- 
terest and no little excitement. They were the result of 
his own researches, each drawing being made from a care- 
fully dissected body, and they indicated in an alarming man- 
ner the frightful effect of the alcoholic habit upon the stom- 
ach. They covered the following ground: 1. The human 
stomach in a state of health; 2. The stomach of the mod- 
erate drinker; 3. The confirmed drunkard's stomach; 4. The 
drunkard's stomach in an ulcerated state; 5. The drunkard's 
stomach after a debauch; 6. The drunkard's stomach in a 
cancerous state; and 7. The drunkard's stomach after death 
by delirium tremens. 

These plates, lithographed on a large scale and hung in 
public institutions and temperance halls, proved of the 
utmost utility to the temperance cause. Lecturers found 
them of the highest value as illustrations of their subject. 
They are still most potent eye-arguments to those unfortu- 
nates of the liquor habit who read little and reason less. 
One . said that when all other appeals were in vain a glance 
at these pictures brought paling cheeks and drooping heads 
to the victims of intemperance. A drunkard remarked on 
looking at the one that represented the stomach after a de- 
bauch : "That looks as I have often felt." "How can I 



OF THE WORLD. 269 

drink when I see the effects of this habit on the constitu- 
tion, ' ' said a gentleman after observing them, c ' and when 
I remember that I must give an account to God for the man- 
ner in which I deal with my body as well as my soul ? I 
will drink no more. ' ' These drawings have had an exten- 
sive circulation throughout the country, and in 1844 were 
placed in many of the New York State schools, the first 
step taken in that public-school teaching of temperance 
principles which recently has made such progress. 

The various temperance societies scattered throughout 
the country were active in the dissemination of literature, 
mainly in the form of addresses delivered on various occa- 
sions, while the American Temperance Union was inces- 
santly active in similar work. This body was formed in 
1836 as a successor to the United States Temperance Union 
of 1833, and was itself in 1865 merged into a new associaaion. 

During this period many newspapers in advocacy of tem- 
perance were started, nineteen periodicals devoted to the 
reform existing as early as 1833. The pioneer temperance 
papers were the following: The National Philanthropist, 
edited and published by the Rev. William Collier, of which 
the first number appeared on March 4, 1826. For a few 
months in 1828 William Lloyd Garrison edited this paper. 
In 1828 three papers were established, the earliest being 
The Genius of Temperance and General Moralist, founded 
on January 9, 1828, at Hallo well, Maine, by the Rev. Phineas 
Crandall. In the next year it united with The Lighthouse of 
Wiscasset, Maine. In September, 1828, Wm. L,. Garrison 
started at Bennington, Vermont, The Journal of the Times, 
devoted to intemperance, slavery, and national peace. The 
Warning Voice, a semi-monthly, was started in October of 
the same year at Philadelphia by the Society of Friends. 
On January 16, 1829, The National Philanthropist yNas merged 



270 THE WHITE ANGEL 

with The Investigator, a paper started at Providence, R. I., 
by the Rev. William Goodell. On October 28th The Genius 
of Temperance was also absorbed by The Investigator, Mr. 
Goodell continuing in editorial charge. In the latter part 
of 1830 this paper was moved to New York, and became the 
organ of the New York State Society under the name of 
The Genius of Temperance, Philanthropist, and People 1 s Ad- 
vocate. Other early papers were The Genius of Philanthropy,. 
started December 16, 1829, at Watertown, N. Y., The Tem- 
perance Herald, at Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., and the Western 
Temperance Journal, Batavia, Ohio (May 1, 1830). 

Since the period in question the number of journals dedi- 
cated to the temperance cause has very greatly increased, 
and is at present little short of a hundred, in great part 
weeklies, several of which have a very extensive circulation. 

TEMPERANCE LITERATURE OF ENGLAND. 

Some further reference to the early temperance literature 
of Great Britain is here desirable. In this respect English 
writers were fairly active during the eighteenth century, 
and a number of strongly-written papers by physicians and 
clergymen appeared. Near the end of the century several 
scientists vigorously attacked the prevailing evil — Dr. Eras- 
mus Darwin, the father of the celebrated Charles Darwin, 
in his Zoonomia ; Dr. Beddoes in his Hygeia ; Dr. Trotter 
in his Essay on Drunkenness ; and Dr. T. Garnett in his 
Lecture on Zoonomia. Dr. Darwin was an active advocate 
of temperance among the hard-drinking squires of his neigh- 
borhood, and is said by Miss Edge worth to have persuaded 
many of them to give up the flowing bowl. 

These essays on drunkenness in its scientific aspects were 
continued by Sir A. Carlisle's lectures on The Pernicious 
Effects of Fermented and Spirituous Liquors as a Part of 
Human Diet (1810); Dr. Thomas Forster's Physiological 



OF THE WORLD. 2J1 

Reflections on the Destructive Operation of Spirituous and 
Fermented Liquors on the Human System (1812); and Mr. 
Basil Montagu's Some Enquiries into the Effects of Fermented 
Liquors by a Water-Drinker (18 14). Robert Macnish in 
1827 issued The Anatomy of Drunkenness, a work of con- 
siderable interest, though not dealing with the subject from 
its practical aspects like the others named. 

After the establishment of temperance societies in Great 
Britain publications were issued in large numbers, and a 
newspaper, the monthly Temperance Record, was commenced 
in Scotland in June, 1830. In 1834, Mr. Livesey of the 
Preston Society began his Preston Tempei'ance Advocate^ 
a journal which proved a great aid to the cause of reform, 
in England. 

During the more recent period temperance literature in 
England has enormously augmented, much of it by authors 
of acknowledged ability. 

The most striking, and among the most important, con- 
tributions to temperance in England are the valuable en- 
gravings of George Cruikshank. This noted humorous and 
satirical artist became an advocate of total abstinence in 
1847, and at once placed his powerful pencil at the service 
of the temperance cause. Numerous plates in illustration 
of the evils of drunkenness were issued by him, each of 
which had the force of a highly-effective temperance ser- 
mon. His great work, The Worship of Bacchus, and his 
eight plates illustrative of The Bottle, have proved of the 
utmost value. The Bottle engravings have had an enormous 
circulation in Great Britain and America, 

One of the most valuable of recent English publications 
on the subject of temperance is Dr. B. W. Richardson's 
record of researches into the action of alcohol on the sys- 
tem, a scientific contribution to the subject of the utmost 
importance. 



272 THE WHITE ANGEL 

THE NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 

The recent American temperance literature is so identified 
with a special publication-house that the two must be con- 
sidered in common. The American Temperance Union, 
which for many years exerted a far-reaching influence by its 
circulation of literature and publication of papers and jour- 
nals, was merged in 1865 into a new organization, the 
National Temperance Society and Publication-House, to 
which in December of that year all its accumulated ma- 
terials — tracts, documents, periodicals, stereotype plates, etc. 
— were transferred. The parent society had up to 185 1, ac- 
cording to the report of its secretary, the Rev. John Marsh, 
distributed 4,964,733 copies of books and tracts, in addition 
to vast numbers of newspapers. This distribution was con- 
tinued, in an increasing ratio, up to 1865, while the work 
of its successor has been very much greater. 

The new society was organized with the following object 
and under the following pledge: 

" The object shall be to promote the cause of total absti- 
nence from the use, manufacture, and sale of all intoxicating 
drinks as a beverage. This shall be done by the publication 
and circulation of temperance literature, by the use of the 
pledge, and by all other means calculated to remove the evil 
from the community. No person shall be a member of this 
society who does not subscribe to the following pledge — 
namely: We, the undersigned, do agree that we will not 
use intoxicating liquors as a beverage nor traffic in them; 
that we will not provide them as an article of entertain- 
ment or for persons in our employment; and that in all 
suitable ways we will discountenance their use throughout 
the country. n 

The society began its work with the issue of two month- 
ly newspapers, The National Temperance Advocate and The 
Youth's Temperance Banner. Both of these are still pub- 



2 74 THE WHITE ANGEL 

lished. Of the first more than two million copies have been 
issued. The second, an illustrated four-page paper for chil- 
dren, has now a circulation of over one hundred thousand 
of the monthly and twenty thousand of the semi-monthly 
edition, the total issue to date being over thirty million 
copies. 

The first publication of the society, outside of its monthly 
papers, was a tract by Rev. T. L,. Cuyler entitled A Shot at 
the Decanter, of which 185,000 copies have been published. 
Since then the work done by the society has been enormous. 
Its twenty-third annual report states that its catalogue now 
embraces 1698 separate publications, consisting of books, 
pamphlets, tracts, etc. It has over two hundred and fifty 
writers on its list, and since its origin has issued 711,417,427 
pages of temperance literature. This is a somewhat effective 
showing as compared with the few hundred pages which had 
been issued a century ago. 

Fully one-third of these publications and more than half 
of the printed matter have been juvenile in character, it 
being clearly recognized that the growing generation is the 
one with which the best work can be done, and that if we 
can once bring up to manhood a temperate generation the 
victory so long sought will be accomplished. On the list 
of the society are 161 books intended for Sunday-school 
libraries, and in all 413,881 volumes of this branch of lit- 
erature have been published. Temperance lesson-leaves, 
catechisms, illuminated cards, recitations, etc. go to make 
up the remainder of the juvenile literature, whose scope 
reaches from the earliest school-day age to incipient man- 
hood. 

The National Temperance Society has done excellent mis- 
sionary work among the freedmen in the South by aid of 
lectures and distributed literature, and has labored effectively 
to introduce temperance textbooks into the public schools, to 



OF THE WORLD. 275 

scatter documents in prisons, hospitals, and other needy 
localities, and in various other ways to subserve the interests 
of temperance. In this work the Women's Christian Tem- 
perance Union has actively assisted, particularly in the dis- 
tribution of temperance leaflets, which have been issued in 
the greatest profusion. 

We omit the names of the authors and the titles of the more 
important recent temperance books, since both authors and 
books are still living. These, indeed, would be more volumi- 
nous than we have space to give. Numerous as they are, it can- 
not be claimed that they are superior in quality to the work 
of the great lights of the early temperance reform, such as 
Beecher, Edwards, Pierpont, Jewett, Nott, and the other 
names already given. These men were giants in their day, 
and it would be difficult to advance an argument against the 
liquor-traffic that cannot be found in their pages, or put it 
in more trenchant and vigorous language. 










CHAPTER XII. 



ANTI-LIQUOR LABORS IN CHURCH AND SCHOOL. 

r I ^HE activity in forming temperance societies under the au- 
■*■ spices of the churches which has been so strongly mani- 
fested in England of recent years has not been emulated by 
the churches of America, with the exception of the Protest- 
ant Episcopal and the Roman Catholic. Yet in every other 
respect the American churches have been most earnest and 
efficient agents in the promotion of temperance among their 
members and the people at large. 

The Presbyterian and Methodist churches have gone 
farthest in this direction. The former adopted in 1865 a 
radical declaration to the effect that the Church "must 
purge herself from all participation in the sin (of tempting 
men to become drunkards) by removing from her pale all 
who are engaged in the manufacture and sale of intoxicating 
drinks for use as a common beverage." This rule, if fully 
carried out, will exclude from membership in the Presby- 
terian Church any maker or seller of intoxicating beverages, 
and by a subsidiary resolution all members are prohibited 
from renting their premises for the sale of liquors or in- 
dorsing licenses for its sale. 

The Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church now 

includes prohibitions to the same effect. No member is per- 
276 



OF THE WORLD. 277 

mitted to buy, sell, or drink intoxicating liquor, except in 
cases of extreme necessity, or to rent property or sign licenses 
for that purpose. These rules are claimed to be very gen- 
erally carried out in the ministry and membership. It has 
also been recently decided that unfermented wine only shall 
be used at the sacrament, except where its use is imprac- 
ticable. 

The Baptist Church, while not denying membership to 
liquor-drinkers and dealers, speaks with no uncertain voice 
in condemnation of the traffic, and demands that all who 
persist in such pursuits shall be brought under the discip- 
line of the Church. 

As for the Society of Friends, there is no single body that 
can speak for it as a whole, each Yearly Meeting being an 
independent association. But the early record of this so- 
ciety has never been departed from, and it brings all its 
influence to bear against the manufacture or sale of liquor 
by any of its members. The rule of the society is to per- 
suade and advise, not to command, but the recent utterances 
of its Yearly Meetings seem to show that its membership is 
almost free from any participation in the liquor- traffic. 

The smaller church association of the United Brethren in 
Christ has since 1841 absolutely forbidden its members to 
participate in the liquor-traffic, and to unite with this Church 
is claimed as practically to take a pledge of total abstinence. 
In regard to the other Church organizations, none of them 
seem to have adopted as stringent measures as those above 
mentioned, yet their practice is probably little if any behind 
that of the churches named. 

In regard to the general sentiment of the ministry, we can- 
not better indicate it than by quoting an anecdote of the Rev. 
John Pierpont, who was formerly a minister of the Unitarian 
Church with a congregation that embraced many liquor- 
dealers. When charged by a committee in the interest of 



278 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



these men with excessive zeal in the promnlgation of his 
temperance ideas, he replied in the following trenchant 
language: 

"Guilty, guilty, guilty! On this point, gentlemen, I will 
make no defence. Nolo contendere : I will not contend with 
my adversaries. I would gladly make full confession of all 




my offences in this behalf, but 
how great is the sum of them! 
Sunday and week-day, by day- 
light and candlelight, by lamp- 
light and moonlight; at 'sundry 

times and divers manners;' in sermon and in song; in prose 
and in poetry; in rhyme and in blank verse; in conventicles 
and conventions; in city and country; on both sides of the 
Alleghanies and on both sides of the Atlantic; in pulpits 
heterodox and in pulpits orthodox; in stage-coach and 
steamer; in winter and in summer; by petition and per- 
suasion, chiefly by 'moral suasion,' — have I labored on this 
exciting topic. In the language of the Psalmist, ' I acknow- 
ledge my transgression, and this sin is ever before me.' " 






OF THE WORLD. 279 

It is probable that the liquor-advocates decided that this 
man was too far gone in sin^ and retired in some discomfiture 
from the confession which they had provoked. 

Within the Sunday-schools the teaching of temperance has 
for years past been growing more and more effective. x\n 
important part of the publications of the National Temper- 
ance Society and the Woman's Temperance Union is devoted 
to this purpose, and not without excellent results. The 
quarterly temperance lessons have been more and more 
widely adopted until they have become a general feature 
of Sunday-school instruction. They were placed on the 
regular course of the International Sunday-school Lesson 
Committee in 1887, so that in future temperance will be 
taught in the Sunday-school as an essential part of relig- 
ion. The effect of such teachings cannot be otherwise 
than "mighty for good." 

The work of introducing temperance as an obligatory 
study into the public schools of the country has been dili- 
gently prosecuted by the Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union, mainly through its active agent, Mrs. Mary H. 
Hunt. In this work the National Temperance Society has 
also actively assisted. Mrs. Hunt met with her first success 
in this work in 1879, when at her solicitation Dr. Richard- 
son's Temperance Lesson-Book was accepted by the school- 
board of her own town, Hyde Park, Massachusetts. In the 
same year this book was placed on the supply-list of the 
New York City schools. 

Efforts were next made to have compulsory education in 
temperance adopted by State legislatures. This was first 
accomplished in Vermont, whose legislature in 1882 passed 
an act embracing among its public-school studies " Element- 
ary physiology and hygiene, which shall give special promi- 
nence to the effect of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and nar- 
cotics upon the human system." 



28o THE WHITE ANGEL 

New Hampshire and Michigan followed with similar laws 
in the same year, and Mrs. Hunt next carried her crusade 
into the State of New York, which in 1884 passed an act 
which contained very nearly the words above quoted from 
the Vermont enactment. Pennsylvania quickly afterward 
passed a yet more satisfactory law, requiring ' ' that physiology 
and hygiene — which shall, in each division of the subject so 
pursued, include special reference to the effect of alcoholic 
drinks, stimulants, and narcotics upon the human system — 
shall be included in the branches of study now required by 
law to be taught in the common schools, and shall be intro- 
duced and studied as a regular branch by all pupils in all 
departments of the public schools of the Commonwealth, 
and in all educational institutions supported, wholly or in 
part, by money from the Commonwealth." 

Section two rendered it the duty of all superintendents 
and school boards to report any neglect to comply with the 
provisions of this law, and section three required that no 
person should receive a certificate as a teacher who had not 
passed a satisfactory examination in the above-named sub- 
jects. 

Massachusetts immediately followed, and by the date of 
September, 1885, the States of Rhode Island, Alabama, 
Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon, Nevada, Maine, and Wisconsin 
had passed similar laws, making fourteen States up to that 
date that required their public-school pupils to be taught 
the evils and dangers of intemperance. Since then this 
movement has proceeded with accelerated velocity, and at 
this present date thirty-two States and Territories have 
passed laws to the same effect. No desirable reform was 
ever achieved with greater rapidity than this. 

Similar action was taken by the United States Congress 
in the session of 1886-87. A bill was passed, by an almost 
unanimous vote, to provide for the study of the nature of 



OF THE WORLD. 28 1 

alcoholic drinks and narcotics, and their effects upon the 
human system, in the public schools of the District of 
Columbia and of the Territories, in the Military and 
Naval academies, and in the Indian and colored schools 
of the Territories. This was the first distinctively tem- 
perance measure ever passed by a Congress of the United 
States. 

This movement has not been confined to the United 
States. It has been recently announced that ' ' the Path- 
finders series of temperance textbooks has been adopted 
for use in the leading schools of Japan. ' ' In the Sandwich 
Islands and New Zealand preliminary steps in the same 
direction have been taken, and it is not improbable that 
ere many years the dangers of intoxicating drink will be- 
come an essential portion of public education throughout 
the civilized world. The influence of such tuition cannot 
fail to be of the highest importance and value, and must go 
far toward giving us a generation armed against the dan- 
gerous influence of the wine-cup. 

We may close this chapter with a quotation from Mrs. 
Hunt's address at the Centennial Temperance Conference 
in 1885: 

"Our plan was to introduce this teaching into some 
school and see how it would work. At the end of two 
years this had been done at New Haven and Indianapolis. 
We found it did not tear the schools to pieces. Vermont 
was the first State to enact a law requiring physiology and 
hygiene, with special reference to the effects of alcoholic 
drinks, to be taught in all public schools. Then followed 
Michigan and New Hampshire. Everybody said: This is 
the thing to do. 

"There is not time to allude to the tremendous amount 

of work to get textbooks ready The publishers, in 

the first place, did not want to listen to one word about 



:282 THE WHITE ANGEL 

getting out such books. For years I went from publisher 
to publisher asking* them to publish temperance Physiolo- 
gies for school use. They would shrug their shoulders and 
say: * There is no market for anything of the sort, and never 
will be.' At last, when a publishing-house was persuaded, 
they said: 'These books must not be too radical.' When 
the manuscript came to me from the author, there was a 
paragraph that I had specially asked might appear. The 
publisher said: 'That is too radical.' 

" I will not tell you how much it cost me going back and 
forth from Western New York to Boston getting plates of 
microscopic researches, taking them to the author, and say- 
ing: 'Now, there is exact science;' then taking the manu- 
script to the publisher and convincing him. Every pas- 
sage almost in that series of books issued with the indorse- 
ment of the W. C. T. U. was covered with such work as 
this. 

"Did you ever see an elephant trying to cross a bridge, 
first trying with one foot ? It was a good deal like that with 
the publishers. We went through that experience with only 
one set of publishers. There is, consequently, only one set 
of books that we can indorse. I have here one of the books 
we cannot indorse. On page 124 I read: 'When men take 
a little liquor it makes them feel comfortable and gay. If 
they take too much, they will get slightly intoxicated; they 
will be talkative, boastful, and silly.' 

" Theory : If you want to be comfortable and gay, take a 
little. On page 125: ' Do not understand that alcohol always 
produces such results. Men sometimes use it through a long 
life without seeming to be harmed.' Again: 'Alcoholic 
drinks stimulate the taste in tongue and palate and warm 
the stomach.' This is not very scientific, according to Dr. 
Richardson: 'In moderate doses they excite the brain. 
Wit seems brighter; philosophy more profound.' Not a 



OF THE WORLD. 283 

word about the injurious effects. A boy who has any task 
to perform would say, ' Why, I want my ideas lively and 
my philosophy profound.' " 

Certainly, a vigilant censor is needed at the doorway of 
the public school when such corrupted works as these are 
offered as proper pabulum for the youthful mind. And such 
a censor exists in the W. C. T. U. and its diligent agents in 
every State of the Union. 

As might well have been anticipated, the liquor-dealers 
of the nation do not look with favor upon this teaching of 
temperance truths in the public schools. They have in- 
veighed against it in very bitter language, and in some 
cities sought, by their political prominence, to force the 
school-boards to either abandon the teaching or practically 
smother it out. Mrs. Hunt has but recently called the 
attention of the Massachusetts Legislature to the nullifica- 
tion of this course of instruction in the public schools of 
many of the towns and cities of the State. She is deter- 
mined to ferret out the evasions and misuses of this whole- 
some law, and may be depended upon to carry on an aggres- 
sive warfare in the interest of its honorable acceptance and 
faithful administration. 

The cause of the indignation of the liquor fraternity 
against these laws is easily discerned. One of them perti- 
nently voiced it when he exclaimed : 

" By Jinks! dot ish a shame, ven de Shtate sharge me 
fife hunterd tollars ver der brifilege ov sellin' dot beer, unt 
den tax me some more dwendy tollars ver teachin' mine 
children dot I vos sellin' dot beer poison unt killin' der 
beeples vot trinks dot beer poison! Dot' vos no free coun- 
try — dot's a shvindle!" 

It is gratifying to read in the most recent reports of the 
W. C. T. U. that this work of educating the children of 
the nation in a right knowledge of the dangers of strong 



284 THE WHITE ANGEL 

drink and the rewards of personal abstinence is progressing 
favorably. 

The attitude of the churches upon the subject of Temper- 
ance reform is easily regarded as of tremendous signifcance 
to such a cause. The relationship of the evils of intem- 
perance to the evangelizing office of the Christian Church 
is so necessarily intimate that in any country a true estimate 
of religious conditions involves also an exact estimate of the 
power of the liquor evil. It is safe to declare that wherever 
this evil is great the general state of religious profession 
is low. No further demonstration of this truth is needed 
than a calm and impartial observation in the communities 
of our own country, the United States. In those cities 
where liquor-trafficking is permitted the largest liberties, 
the work of the churches is prosecuted with great difficulty, 
and the pulpit is consciously weak in its wholesome influ- 
ence over the lives of the people. But where the traffic is 
closely circumscribed and menaced by certain retribution 
for lawlessness, the churches are prosperous in general, and 
the moral tone of the people is correspondingly pure. 

Five years of constant and varied labors in evangelism and 
Temperance work have afforded us ample opportunities to 
test this dependence of religious activities upon the treat- 
ment of the liquor evil. Examples by the score might be 
cited and a thousand competent testimonies recorded to prove 
this theorem. It is becoming daily more patent to the clergy 
of the country that the great foe of their mission is the 
liquor traffic, and that it is a duty they owe to Christ, no 
less than to His Church, to beat off and destroy this arch 
gospel-nullifler. 

Before the liquor traffic can be banished from the business 
of the nation the churches of the land must be practically 
and boldly arrayed against it. So long as there are large 
religious bodies indifferent or undetermined as to the neces- 



OF THE WORLD. 285 

sity for the total legal abolition of the pestiferous trade, there 
will be accessible moral platitudes across which the truculent 
and time-serving politics of the hour may construct plat- 
forms of conservatism and compromise. The liquor-dealers 
are always upon the alert to catch up any declaration of a 
minister, church body, or religious newspaper either pallia- 
tive of the traffic or denunciatory of Prohibition, and give 
it a broadcast circulation it would never have naturally ob- 
tained. It must, to a self-respecting minister of the gospel 
of the Son of God, be humiliating to find himself quoted as 
an ally and attorney for this vile traffic in all the pest-holes 
where liquor is vended. If any index to a wrong direction 
of one's thoughts on this subject were needed, surely the 
applause of liquor-dealers should supply it. 

In a recent town-meeting held to consider the advisabil- 
ity of a campaign against further licensing the liquor traffic 
in the community, a clergyman protested his unwillingness 
to become an active participant in the movement. 

' c I cannot bring myself, ' ' said he, ' ' to agree with the 
proposition that this evil is to be dealt with through coer- 
cive laws. I am of opinion that it is one of those deep- 
seated evils of our civilization which will yield only to the 
persuasive methods of charity toward the offenders and a 
tolerant brotherly sympathy with the unfortunate victims. ' ' 

Just then a notorious town-sot, who was in the meeting, 
arose and interrupted the remarks of the clergyman. In a 
visibly befuddled condition he supported his staggering form 
against a pillar in the hall and exclaimed : 

" Mister Churman : I wanter shay (hie!) — that I corjilly 
'gree wiz ye "stinguished preacher!" 

"Then, Mr. Chairman," vociferated the astonished min- 
ister, ' c I desire to retract my previous statement. If those 
views which I then expressed are the views of the men who 
are the supporters of the traffic in strong drink, I hold to 



286 THE WHITE ANGEL 

them no longer, and you may enrol me on the side of Pro- 
hibition." 

Doubtless there are thousands of good men who are in 
like manner unaware of how they have unconsciously adopt- 
ed the views of the saloon-constituency. When they shall 
come to realize this fact, surely all of them will repudiate 
the repulsive agreement and hasten over into the ranks of 
the opposition. 

That there has been a vast improvement, not only in the 
personal drinking habits of clergymen in America in the 
half century past, but more recently in their attitude toward 
the traffic itself, is undeniable; and both these changes are 
signs of progress. It is confidently anticipated that a day 
will soon arrive when not a reputable minister of any evan- 
gelical denomination will forbear to denounce this traffic 
with all the vehemence of his office, and with all the insist- 
ence of his knowledge of its disreputable and despicable 
nature. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE REIGN ANU RECORD OF LICENSE. 

PARALLEL with all this history we have recited runs 
the reign and record of license under the patronage of 
government. To properly treat the subject of liquor 
license would require a separate volume to contain the 
variations of laws to which it has given birth, and the vicis- 
situdes of experience to which the peoples of the world have 
been subjected by the operations of those laws. We can 
only give that general review of the subject which is con- 
sistent with the scope of this work. 

When the demand for liquors reached such widespread 
proportions as to make the purveying of such beverages a 
special form of business, the attention of public economists 
became fixed upon the traffic with keen and purposeful 
interest. The administrators of government were especially 
quick to see public possibilities in this peculiar conjunction 
of a popular thirst and trade. They shrewdly discerned 
that this situation afforded rare chances for enlarging the 
revenues exacted from the people. 

The student of laws and political history is always im- 
pressed by the shrewdness and persistency with which dan- 
gerous and immoral pursuits seek to entrench themselves 
in laws and be consociated with the functions of govern- 
ment. Hundreds of instances of such evil confederacies 
might be cited from the history of the past, but the modern 

instances of lotteries, gambling schemes, and liquor-traffick- 

287 



288 THE WHITE ANGEL 

ing are sufficient examples of a once mighty brood. In 
America the public conscience has come to itself so far as to 
generally prohibit lotteries and gambling. The recent 
events in Louisiana and North Dakota, arousing public 
indignation and protest in all parts of the United States, 
prove how thoroughly the vast popular majorities have 
criminalized the lottery and barred it from future legal 
recognition. There is not a State in the Union where 
common gambling is not a misdemeanor, or, as in many, a 
felony. The great temperance movements of the age con- 
template the like classification and treatment of the sale of 
liquors for beverage purposes. It is an effort which will 
involve a vast missionary labor and the conversion of mil- 
lions of men to new methods of thinking upon this subject. 
How far the faith of the workers to this end is justified must 
be left for the present to the sound judgment of those who 
can read the signs of the times without passion and prejudice. 

The restrictive edicts of the past — those of the Chinese 
emperors,, of the Grecian lawgivers, of Middle- Age mon- 
archs, etc. — we have already considered. The story of the 
legislative enactments of more modern times, particularly 
those of the United States, remains to be told to complete 
our historical review of the many-sided subject of temper- 
ance reform. 

As to when the sale of liquor was first licensed, and re- 
stricted to those granted a license by the state, history is 
silent. The first license fees of which we find any record 
were laid by the government of Scotland in the twelfth cen- 
tury upon the women who seem to have been the earliest 
brewers of Scotch ale. The fee was but an annual four- 
pence, and the right to brew was open to all who chose to 
pay it, so that there was nothing of a restrictive character 
in this early revenue enactment. 

In England also at this period women seem to have been 



OF THE WORLD. 



289 



the usual brewers, at least iu some parts of the country. 
Hence the term l ' ale-wives. ' ' In that country the first 
known restrictive measure dates from 1495, when alehouse- 
keepers were required to give sureties against the improper 
sale of intoxicating beverages. Before this date the only 
liquor laws were those directed against adulteration and 
short measure and in regula- 
tion of the price of ale. But 
the business now began to be 
looked upon as mischievous, 
and in 1504 another law was 
passed giving justices authority 
to require sureties for good be- ^ 
havior from keepers of ale- 
houses, and also to limit the 
number of such houses. 

The earliest license fees in 
England were laid by an act 
passed in 1552 to restrict the 
" intolerable hurts and trou- 
bles ' ' to which alehouses and 
tippling-houses gave rise. Mag- 
istrates were given full power 
to determine how many houses 
should be licensed, the license 

fee, however, being "but twelvepence. " All those who 
broke the regulations imposed were fined twenty shillings. 

Another license law of a more restrictive character was 
passed in the succeeding year. It permitted but two taverns 
to be kept in any one town except London. It was recited 
that the taverns had been diverted from their true purpose, 
and had become centres of drunken riot and licentiousness. 

From this time forward edicts were passed from time to 
time, generally of a restrictive character. Lord-keeper 

19 




An Old-time Ale-wife. 



29O THE WHITE ANGEL 

Egerton in 1602 in his charge to the circuit judges re- 
marked: "I account alehouses and tippling-houses the 
greatest pests in the kingdom. I give it you in charge 
to take a course that none be permitted unless they be 
licensed; and for the licensed alehouses let them be few 
and in fit places; if they be in private corners and ill places 
they become the den of thieves — they are the public stages 
of drunkenness and disorder." 

In 1606 a new and stringent law was passed on the ground 
that "the loathsome and odious sin of drunkenness has of 
late grown into common use within this realm, being the 
root and foundation of many other enormous sins, as blood- 
shed, stabbing, murder, swearing, fornication, adultery, and 
such like, to the great dishonor of God and of our nation, the 
overthrow of many good arts and manual trades, the dis- 
abling of divers workmen and the general impoverishing 
of many good subjects, abusively wasting the good creatures 
of God." 

Certainly a truer and more vigorous presentation of the 
evils of strong drink could not well have been presented, 
and it is a little difficult to understand how the writer of the 
above paragraph could bring himself to speak of the causes 
of these dire mischiefs as " the good creatures of God." As 
he presents them they might more justly be entitled the evil 
agents of the devil. 

The restrictive measures above described were very far 
from diminishing the traffic in intoxicating liquors. It 
steadily increased, and the use of ardent spirits augmented, 
until finally there reigned in London the pandemonium of 
gin which we have already set forth. In 1736 there were 
seven thousand drinking-houses in London, an average of 
one to every seven houses in the city. License up to that 
date had been of no effect in diminishing the evils of drunk- 
enness. 



OF THE WORLD. 



2 9 



We have in a preceding chapter spoken of the ' ' Gin law ' ' 
passed in 1736, in which an annual license of ^50 was re- 
quired for the sale of spirituous liquors. It proved of very 
little utility, since it was evaded with impunity, and finally 
became a dead letter. In 1753 a more effective license law 
was passed, directed against fermented as well as distilled 
liquors. This law, which greatly reduced the consumption 
of gin, continued in force until 1828, when it was replaced 
by an enactment yet more stringent in its provisions. 




Advocates of the Beer-Bill. 



In 1830 a new and dangerous experiment was tried in 
England. License was continued on distilled spirits, but 
was wholly removed from beer, under the delusive belief 



292 THE WHITE ANGEL 

that this would diminish drunkenness by promoting the 
substitution of beer for spirits as a beverage. The expected 
result failed to appear. Within one year from the passage 
of the law thirty thousand new beer-shops came into exist- 
ence, while the sale of spirits, instead of diminishing, in- 
creased in a rapid ratio. 

Sydney Smith in his telling manner describes the results 
of the new law: "The new beer-bill has begun its opera- 
tions. Everybody is drunk. Those who are not singing 
are sprawling. The sovereign people are in a beastly 
state." 

The quantity of malt used for brewing increased twenty- 
eight per cent, in consequence of the act, but during the 
same period the consumption of spirits increased thirty-two 
per cent. It became very evident that * ' free beer ' ' would 
not diminish the thirst for ardent spirits. On the con- 
trary, the enactment simply placed the first stepping-stone 
to drunkenness within every one's reach, and created drunk- 
ards in a greater ratio than it had been expected to annihilate 
them. 

"The licenses for the sale of spirits — of which in 1830 
48,904 were granted — numbered in 1833, 50,828, being an 
increase of 1924. In Sheffield three hundred beer-shops 
were added to the old complement of public-houses, and 
it is a striking fact that before the second year had ex- 
pired not less than one hundred and ten of the keepers 
of these houses had applied for spirit licenses to satisfy the 
desire for ardent spirits." 

As to the effect of license in London to-day, the following 
statement may be of interest: "Mrs. G. S. Reaney, setting 
forth the claims and privileges of total abstinence, asked 
whether it was not the case that there was more drinking 
amongst the women of England to-day than ever before. 
In the Bitter Cry of Outcast London not half enough had 



OF THE WORLD. 293 

been said about the drinking habits which were the real 
cause of it. At the gates of some docks in the East End 
a public-house changed hands last summer, and what would 
anybody suppose that it cost? Scores of idlers and men 
out of work loitered there, and that public-house sold for 
^19,000, one reason being that on the previous night six 
hogsheads of ale were sold over the counter. There was 
also distress in Sunderland, and yet at a time when nineteen 
hundred wedding-rings were sold in that town there was no 
perceptible diminution in the trade of the public-houses." — 
Daily News. 

The story of license in England is so neatly told in Cow- 
per's Task that a short quotation from this poem may serve 
as a fitting appendix: 

" Pass where we may, through city or through town, 
Village, or hamlet of this pleasant land, 
Though lean and beggared, every twentieth pace 
Conducts the unguarded nose to such a whiff 
Of stale debauch forth-issued from the styes 
That law has licensed as makes Temperance reel. 
There sit involved and lost in curling clouds 
Of Indian fume, and guzzling deep, the boor, 
The lackey, and the groom. The craftsman there 
Takes a Lethean leave of all his toil ; 
Smith, cobbler, joiner, he that plies the shears, 
And he that kneads the dough, all loud alike, 
All learned, and all drunk. 'Tis here they learn 
The road that leads from competence and peace 
To indigence and rapine ; till, at last, 
Society, grown weary of the load, 
Shakes her encumbered lap and casts them out. 
The excise is fattened with the rich result 
Of all this riot. The ten thousand casks, 
For ever dribbling out their base contents, 
Touched by the Midas finger of the state, 
Bleed gold, for Parliament to vote away. 
Drink and be mad, then ; 'tis your country bids ; 



294 THE WHITE ANGEL 

Gloriously drunk— obey the important call ; 

Her cause demands the assistance of your throats ; 

You all can swallow, and she asks no more." 

LICENSE IN, AMERICA. 

The licensing of drinking-houses, which had become the 
custom in England, was early adopted in the American col- 
onies, and in New England in particular strenuous efforts 
were made to restrict intoxication by this means. A series 
of enactments were passed in Massachusetts from 1633 to 
1700 to limit the number of drinking-houses and to lessen 
their evil influences. By the law of 1633 any person who 
suffered another to become drunk in his house was subject 
to fine and punishment at the pleasure of the governor and 
council. The law of 1695 sentenced all who sold without 
license to the discipline of the whipping-post. 

License laws were passed in the settlement of East Hamp- 
ton, Long Island, in 1651, and in New Haven about 1655. 
The latter stated that, as drunkenness was making danger- 
ous progress in the colony, ' ' no person at any time shall 
re-tale any sort of strong liquor within this jurisdiction with- 
out express license from the authority of the plantation 
within the limits where he so sells; and that the selling of 
a lessened quantity than three gallands at a time is to be 
accounted re- tale; and that due moderation be attended in 
prisas (prices) when it is so re-taled, but that none of any 
sort be at any time sold above 3sh. and 6 pence a quart." 

This law fixed the license rate at forty shillings for every 
butt or pipe sold, and required that no one should be allowed 
to become drunk or sit long tippling, while fines were laid 
on all who drank to excess. Sale to Indians was also for- 
bidden without special license from a magistrate. 

Similar enactments were from time to time passed in Con- 
necticut. Of the punishments inflicted on drunkards by the 
New Haven courts many curious accounts are extant. 



OF THE WORLD. 



295 



The drunkard was held up to public condemnation after 
most humiliating fashions. Among the punishments im- 
posed on the offenders of that 
day an inebriate might be sen- 
tenced to stand, as long as the 
court thought meet, "with a white 
sheete of paper on his back, wherin 
A drunkard shall be written in 
greate letters." Another drunk- 
ard was disfranchised and sen- 
tenced to ' ' weare aboute his necke, 
and soe (as) to hang upon his out- 
ward garment, a D, made of red 
cloth, and sett upon white; to con- 
tynue this for a yeare, and nott to 
leave it off att any tyme when he 
comes among company, under the 
penalty of 40s. for the first offence, 
and ^5 the second, and after to be 
punished by the Court as they 
think meete. Also hee is to weare the D outward; and is 
enjoyned to appear att the next General Court, and continue 
there until the Court be ended. ' ' 

The crime of drunkenness could not have been very gen- 
erally indulged in during the seventeenth century if punish- 
ments as severe as these were frequently inflicted. 

License laws were passed in the other colonies, but proved 
everywhere so ill adapted to reduce drunkenness that con- 
tinual changes were made with the hope of rendering them 
more effective. Over one hundred license laws have been 
passed in Massachusetts, and in Pennsylvania, from 1682 to 
1879, no less than three hundred and forty-two statutes and 
amendments have been enacted in vain efforts to overcome 
or control drunkenness by this method. Early in the eigh- 




The Drunkard's D. 



296 THE WHITE ANGEL 

teenth century the grand jury of Philadelphia county de- 
clared that the houses which sold drink were ' ' nearly a 
tenth part of the city." Though this proportion is not 
maintained to-day, the number of drinking-houses is still in 
a high proportion to those devoted to any other line of 
business. 

• LICENSE IN SWEDEN. 

The consideration of the more recent license laws in 
America must be left for a subsequent chapter. In one 
country of Europe, however, interesting experiments in 
license have been tried, which we shall next describe. Swe- 
den, the country in question, was noted during the first half 
of the present century as the most intemperate nation in 
Europe, if not in the world. For over a century the traffic 
in intoxicating liquors had been left absolutely free. The 
result may be given in the words of Mr. Laing from his 
Tow in Sweden in 1838: 

c ' The best-informed individuals impute the extraordinary 
state of the criminal returns of the country to the excessive 
drunkenness of the lowest class. The evil, they say, goes 
beyond the excess of all other nations, is the cause of three- 
fourths of all the crimes committed, and is destroying the 
very race, physically as well as morally. ' ' 

The evil became so unbearable in time that public senti- 
ment was generally awakened to the frightful condition to 
which free drink had brought the country. In 1854 a special 
committee of the Diet of Sweden reported that the very ex- 
istence of the people of Sweden was at stake unless radical 
legal measures were adopted. In the words of the report: 
' ' It might be said that a cry of agony has burst forth from 
the hearts of the people, and an appeal made to all having 
influence on the fate of the country for deliverance from a 
scourge which previous legislators have planted and nour- 
ished." 



OF THE WORLD. 297 

Temperance societies were not wanting in this country. 
A society on the basis of total abstinence from distilled 
liquors had been formed at Stockholm in 1831. Ten years 
afterward about five hundred societies existed. Yet the 
opposition to them was great and their influence in redu- 
cing intoxication very small. 

In 1855 was passed the " Swedish Licensing Act," which 
is still in existence, and which has had a highly beneficial 
effect in diminishing drunkenness in that country. This 
act opens a way to local prohibition, of which the people 
have somewhat generally availed themselves by the parishes 
refusing to grant any licenses whatever. 

Bailie Lewis describes a parish which he visited in which 
there was but one spirit-shop: " I took a walk through this 
model parish in the twilight of a Sunday evening, and the 

quiet and order that prevailed were most refreshing 

In the parish immediately adjoining there resided one of the 
largest distillers in Sweden, who possessed an immense 
amount of political influence in the district and in the com- 
mune. Here the licensed grogshops were at a maximum, 
and here we found drunkenness, demoralization, and poverty 
obtruding themselves in a most offensive form." He adds: 
"The social condition of Sweden, as in Scotland, England, 
and Ireland, and indeed everywhere else, proves that just in 
proportion as you limit the number of houses for the sale of 
intoxicating liquors you improve the morality and social 
well-being of the district ; and in like manner, as you mul- 
tiply the facilities for drinking, you increase drunkenness, 
with its never-failing attendants of crime, beggary, and 
irreligion. ' ' 

In Gothenburg, the second city of Sweden, with a popu- 
lation of about 56,000, a peculiar system of licensing has 
been adopted, which, under the title of the "Gothenburg 
System," has attracted much attention. As there is nothing 



2gS THE WHITE ANGEL 

like it elsewhere in the world, it needs to be more particularly 
described. 

At first, here as elsewhere, the number of licenses was 
fixed by the authorities, and they were sold at auction. 
After ten years' trial of this plan the demoralization of the 
people was found to be so great that a committee was ap- 
pointed to seek the cause of the increased degradation and 
pauperism. Intemperance proved to be the chief cause there 
as it has been everywhere in all times and climes. It was 
thereupon decided by the town council that " public-houses 
should no longer be conducted by individuals for the sake 
of profit, but by an association," which should bring profit 
neither to its individual members nor to the managers of the 
establishments. 

All public-houses were to be clean and well-ventilated ; 
they were to be reduced in number ; each must be an eating- 
house, where good food could be had at moderate prices ; no 
spirit was be sold on credit or pledge ; the managers could 
derive profit from the sale of food and malt liquors, but 
not from spirits; strict police supervision was required; and, 
finally, all net profits from the sale of spirits were to be paid 
into the town treasury. 

The company went into operation in 1865. One-third the 
number of licenses were at once extinguished, and for a 
while an improved condition of affairs appeared. Yet this 
was only temporary. Shop licenses were still granted, while 
four hundred " free-beer " shops existed. It being claimed 
that the trouble arose from these, a change in the law was 
made, and no licenses outside the company were granted 
except to merchants who dealt only in the more expensive 
wines and liquors. Thus by 1875 the company had a nearly 
complete monopoly of the retail spirit trade. 

The common Swedish liquor is distilled from potatoes and 
grain, resembles whiskey, and is called u bran-vin." As to 



OF THE WORLD. 299 

the working of the new system for the sale of this fiery bev- 
erage, we may quote from a graphic statement in Macmil- 
larts Magazine for February, 1872: 

"It is a market-day, so we may count on finding a brisk 
trade going on at Vardhus, No. 9, which abuts upon the 
market-place, and is the favorite rendezvous of the market- 
folk. Pushing through a swinging door a few 7 steps above 
the level of the street, we come at once into a large and 
tolerably lofty L-shaped room. The sanded floor is scrupu- 
lously clean and dotted here and there with small wooden 
tables. Across one end runs the bar, behind which stands 
the manager in snowy shirt-sleeves and apron, backed by a 
row of glittering wine-bottles labelled ' port, sherry, cham- 
pagne, and punch,' ranged on shelves that climb almost to 
the ceiling. The first glance at the bar is enough to remind 
us that we are not in London. Instead of the familiar row 
of upright handles, the centre of the counter is occupied by 
a small army of what may be called large-sized liquor- 
glasses, all brimming full of pure, colorless bran-vin. The 
flanks of this fiery army are covered by two plates, piled 
with broken pieces of hard rye biscuit-bread, and a powerful 
reserve force of spirit decanters is massed in the rear. Not 
without good reason, too, these preparations, for the army 
of glasses is being constantly attacked. One moment it is a 
young, smooth-cheeked wagoner with a whip in hand ; an- 
other, a sailor from the port; now a mechanic with his tool- 
hag; and now a probable tradesman in black cloth marches 
lip to the bar, tosses off one of the glasses of whiskey, puts 
a morsel of bread into his mouth and a very few small bronze 
coins upon the counter, and is gone again in a twinkling, 
without a word to anybody. How much is that stuff in the 
glasses? The tariff posted on the wall there will tell us. 
Three farthings ! Well, at any rate, an occasional dram of 
the company's ordinary bran-vin will not be ruinous to the 



300 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



purse; and, to judge from the taste, it is well-rectified, un- 
favored spirit, containing about fifty per cent, of alcohol." 
In other parts of the room men and women are seated at 
the tables at their morning meal. ' ' There is a low hum of 




A Gothenburg Spirit-house. 

conversation in the room, but no boisterous talking or swear- 
ing or horse-play. ' ' 

This cheerful and somewhat favorable * c private view ' ' of 
the state of affairs in a Gothenburg public-house may be 
matched by a description which affords us a glimpse of the 
darker side of the picture. Bailie Lewis says: 



OF THE WORLD. 301 

" In the "market-place there were no fewer than three of 
these grogshops, one of them having a frontage of upward 
of fifty feet. The mode of conducting the business ap- 
peared to me to be one of the most deadly description 

With a view of economizing time a long row of glasses was 
arranged along the counter filled with bran-vin, and which 
were every minute being emptied and as summarily replen- 
ished While a brisk counter trade was thus being 

prosecuted with a promptness and energy unsurpassed in 
any liquor-shop in Edinburgh, numbers were to be found in 
groups of two, three, and upward drinking at tables in differ- 
ent parts of the establishment. The quantity of liquor being 
sold and consumed in these public-houses was, indeed, start- 
ling. In the course of the seventeen minutes which I re- 
mained in the place referred to no fewer than eighty-three 
persons were supplied with bran-vin, and when I left nine- 
teen others were being supplied. When about to leave I 
observed a partially sunk flat in the back part of the prem- 
ises entering from a back street, and where an equal num- 
ber, which I could not accurately estimate, appeared to be 
entering and getting supplied. This back entrance seemed 
to be a convenient adjunct, as I subsequently observed that 
those who entered from the back street seemed to be in more 
reduced circumstances and less presentable in their appear- 
ance. To show how successfully bran-vin competes with 
more nutritious and less objectionable beverages, there 
were, out of the eighty-three persons referred to, only 
four who partook of coffee, and all of them had it accom- 
panied by glasses of bran-vin. So astonished was I at the 
number who frequented this one house, and keeping in view 
that it was market-day, I paid it another visit on the follow- 
ing Sunday evening, and found that no fewer than one hun- 
dred and two persons entered one door in the space of twen- 
ty-five minutes." 



302 THE WHITE ANGEL 

The financial results of this system to the city are the fol- 
lowing: The £7000 previously received for licenses was 
swelled by 1875 to about ^35,000 in profits. The drunk- 
enness, which fell off at first, is said to be now on the 
increase, and the consumption of intoxicants to be nearly 
six gallons to every person of the population. It is very 
evident that the Gothenburg license system is not a desir- 
able one to emulate. 

INTOXICATION IN EUROPE. 

As to the effects of the license to sell intoxicating drinks 
elsewhere in Europe, a few statements may be of interest. 
It should be said, in preface, that the "free-beer law" of 
1830 still persists in England, in spite of the mischief which 
it is acknowledged to produce. It has been somewhat mod- 
ified, but its evil effects are unabated. Abundant and strik- 
ing evidences of its mischievous influences are on record, 
but we shall simply append the summing up of the Iyondon 
Globe : " The injury done by the beer act to the peace and 
order of moral neighborhoods, not to mention domestic hap- 
piness, industry, and economy, has been proved by witnesses 
from every class of society to have exceeded the evils of any 
single act of internal administration passed within the mem- 
ory of man. ' ' 

In the words of another writer: "Three-fourths of the 
keepers of these beer-houses are the greatest drunkards, 
thieves, and everything that is bad. Such houses are the 
hotbed or rearing-house and harbor for every crime. Boys 
of ten or twelve years of age begin to assemble there, and 
are encouraged in sin and crime." 

As for the wine countries of Europe, the general belief that 
their people are temperate in drink is not sustained by the 
statements of travellers. The Rev. Dr. Fowler says: 
"There is an impression that France is a temperate nation. 



OF THE WORLD. 303 

Men ride through the country in the better class of cars and 
see little of it, because the matchless police remove the 
nuisance; but let them live there, and live with the people, 
and they will change their minds. Listen to the witnesses. 
One author, J. Fenimore Cooper, says: 'I came to Europe 
under the impression that there was more drunkenness 
among us (Americans) than in any other country. A resi- 
dence of six months in Paris changed my views entirely. 
I have taken unbelievers about Paris, and always convinced 
them in one walk. I have been more struck by drunken- 
ness in the streets of Paris than in those of London. ' Hor- 
ace Greeley wrote from Paris: 'That wine will intoxicate, 
does intoxicate, that there are confirmed drunkards in Paris 
and throughout France, is notorious and undeniable.' M. 
le Clerc says: 'Laborers leave their work, derange their 
means, drink irregularly, and transform into drunken 
debauch the time which should have been spent in profit- 
able labor.' A French magazine says: ' Drunkenness is the 
beginning and end of life in the great French industrial cen- 
tres. At Lille twenty-five per cent, of the men and twelve 
per cent, of the women are confirmed drunkards. ' 

' ' The count de Montalembert, member of the Academy 
of Natural Sciences, said in the National Assembly of 
France: 'Where there is a wineshop, there are the elements 
of disease and the frightful source of all that is at enmity 
with the interests of the workman.' M. Jules Simon: 
' Women rival the men in drunkenness. »At Lille, at Rouen, 
there are some so saturated with it that their infants refuse 
to take the breast of a sober woman.' Hon. James M. 
Usher, chief commissioner of Massachusetts to the World's 
Exposition in Paris in 1867, says: ' The drinking habit runs 
through every phase of society. I have seen more people 
drunk here than I ever saw in Boston for the same length of 
time. They are the same class of people too.' Hon. Caleb 



3°4 THE WHITE ANGEL 

Foote of Salem, Mass. , writing from Paris after wide inves- 
tigation denies, in toto y the theory that the people of the 
wine-producing countries are sober. Dr. E. N. Kirk of 
Boston says: * I never saw such systematic drunkenness as I 
saw in France during a residence of sixteen months. The 
French go about it as a business. I never saw so many 
women drunk.' " 

The drunkenness of the French, however, cannot in full 
be ascribed to wine. The consumption of spirits there has 
been for years on the increase, while the drinking of the 
perilous absinthe has attained to highly dangerous propor- 
tions. An article in the Paris Constitutionnel of 1872 says: 
" It is unanimously admitted that the habit of drunkenness 
has increased in France year by year since the beginning of 

the century The French race is deteriorating daily. 

It is especially the drunkenness produced by alcohol which 
exercises a deplorable effect on the public health. The 
drunkenness caused by wine is less dangerous. Unhappily, 
the passage from one to the other is rapid. Men begin with 
wine ; soon the palate is palled and asks for stronger excite- 
ment : alcohol is taken. In forty years the consumption of 
alcohol has tripled in France. From 350,000 hectolitres in 
1820, it increased to 620,000 in 1850, and to 976,000 in 1868. 
.... In 1869 the quantity taxed in Paris was 130,000 hec- 
tolitres. Divided among a population of 1,900,000 souls, 
this gives something over six litres a head, but the division 
per head is a fiction. The number of those who participate 
more or less in the consumption of alcohol is estimated at 
about 300,000, which gives about forty- three litres for each. 
In 1839 the average annual consumption per adult was reck- 
oned at eight litres. These figures show how rapid the in- 
crease has been." 

This is a perilous showing, yet the consumption of wine 
in France has not been diminished in consequence of the 




20 



3°6 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



great amount of spirit-drinking. At the period mentioned 
(1872) the French wine-product was over 1,000,000,000 
gallons, which was largely consumed at home. 

The same article says: "The money that should supply 
the household passes into the hands of the tavern-keeper, 
and where there might be comfort there are abject poverty 
and its demoralizing influences. If the wife complains, if 
she begs for a change of conduct, she is answered by blows, 
and the children see the terrible sight of the destruction of 
family ties As for the drunkard himself, it is for- 
tunate if he becomes merely idle and neglectful of the most 
sacred obligations. His moral corruption often goes farther. 
The tavern is a school of vice. It is from there that nearly 
all criminals emerge, and it is there that the great army of 
thieves and malefactors finds recruits. ' ' 

The effect of strong drink on the conduct and character 
of its devotees is very clearly described by a poor woman 




of London, who pitifully said: "I have two husbands — two 
in one. One of them is a kindly, honest, respectable per- 
son, whom I love: that is my husband when sober. The 
other is a drunken, brutal fellow, who is constantly abusing 
and ill-treating me: that is my husband when drunk. " 



OF THE WORLD. 307 

This is scarcely a metaphorical use of language. The 
mind of a drunken man is not, in any proper sense, iden- 
tical with that of the same man when sober. 

Somewhat to the same effect was a remark made by an 
x\merican in London. An acquaintance asked him how it 
was that he never stopped at a single glass, but always 
drank two or three. He replied: "When I have taken a 
glass I notice that it makes another man of me, and I feel 
bound as a gentleman to treat that other man." 

Wine-producing Switzerland seems to closely imitate 
France in its drinking habits. Major C. B. Cotton says: 
• ' Switzerland, the oldest republic in the world, and whose 
population is made up of the sturdiest people among the 
human race, has in recent years become a victim in an 
unusual degree to the curse of strong drink." This he 
ascribes to the cheap brandies of France : ' ' Brandy as a 
beverage has become so common as to displace tea and 
coffee. It is admitted into Switzerland almost free of duty, 
and can be bought for a few cents a bottle. 

"The national drink in Switzerland seems to be in no 
wise distinctive. The people drink their own native wine 
and its distilled product, the brandies of France, and the 
gins of Holland." 

Dr. Guillaume says: "In 1872 the liberty of the wine- 
traffic was the source of more than sixty per cent, of the 
crime committed." 

Rev. B. S. Lacy, who spent some time in Switzerland, 
says: "The people do nothing but work in the vineyards, 
where wine is cheap and pure, and far more the beverage 
of the laboring classes than water. Here more intoxication 
was obvious than in any other place it was ever my lot to 
live in. On holy and festive occasions you might suppose 
all the male population were drunk, so great were the num- 
bers in this beastly and deranged condition. On Sunday 



308 THE WHITE ANGEL 

afternoons young men go shouting along the streets. Intel- 
ligent Swiss gentlemen tell me that this is the great social 
evil of their country — a country where wine is never adulter- 
ated and where the consumption is enormous. ' ' 

The remark here made, that Swiss wine is never adulter- 
ated, must have been based on imperfect information. The 
volume of consular reports recently published at Washing- 
ton speaks of extensive wine adulterations in that country, 
and makes the following statement: "A recent writer on 
the question, a merchant in the wine trade in Zurich, says 
that even in this unsophisticated land of innocent-looking 
vineyards the grape takes the smallest part in the manufac- 
ture of wines. He makes the striking statement that the 
annual importation of dried raisins to Switzerland reaches 
19,000 quintaux, while only 800 quintaux are used by con- 
fectioners and in households, the remainder being made into 
wine. This artificial wine is in great part mixed with the 
common red product of the southern French wines or with 
the acid native white wine. It is further estimated that 
12,000,000 francs' worth of this manufactured wine is sold 
annually in Switzerland, of which 5,000,000 francs' worth 
comes from France, the balance being prepared here. The 
writer asserts that it is impossible by means of any analysis 
to distinguish the manufactured from the natural wines. 
For some years the prevalence of intemperance, resulting, 
it is believed, from the free use, cheap production, and 
adulteration of alcoholic spirits, has been observed by the 
thoughtful citizens of this country. An inquiry instituted 
by the government disclosed the fact that there were con- 
sumed annually 150,000 hectolitres, or about ten litres of 
alcoholic liquors for each inhabitant." 

Recently a liquor law has been adopted by popular vote 
in Switzerland which goes much farther than the license 
law of Sweden, since the government becomes the actual 



3IO THE WHITE ANGEL 

owner of all the liquor distilled in the country, and is in a 
position to control the retail trade in spirituous liquors. We 
append a statement concerning it from the source of the 
quotation just given: u The absolute control over the manu- 
facture and rectification of alcoholic spirits is vested in the 
Confederation, with indemnity to distillers. This proposi- 
tion to give the Confederation this monopoly of making 
and selling all alcoholic spirits naturally has provoked a 
very general and warm discussion, especially on the part of 
the public press. In this [Berne] canton, where there ex- 
ists a very large distillery interest, the opposition was vigor- 
ous. Many Church papers opposed it on moral grounds — 
that the government should not make itself a party in a traf- 
fic so injurious to the people, and that if it be found neces- 
sary to restrict the sale of spirituous liquors, it should be 
done by the imposition of higher taxes, and that the portion 
assigned to the cantons to be used in measures to repress the 
abuse of alcohol is a recognition in a most distinct form of 
the baleful traffic. But the result of the popular vote shows 
that the law was most favorably considered by the people, 
receiving, as it did, almost two-thirds of the vote cast; and 
it is confidently predicted by its friends that no possible 
harm and much good will result. The distillers are re- 
quired to sell their product to the government, and to no 
one else. The government will then resell to the consumer 
— that is, the government is to have a monopoly of the en- 
tire retail trade in intoxicants." 

What the effect of this law will be only time can decide. 
It depends greatly on the character of its enforcement 
whether or not it will reduce the amount of drunkenness. 
If rigidly enforced, it may prove a step toward better things, 
by educating the people in the principles and practice of 
temperance. 

The record of Switzerland is matched by that of Italy, 



OF THE WORLD. 3 I I 

where, in the words of Horatio Greenough, "one-fifth, and 
sometimes one-fonrth, of the earnings of the laborers are 
expended in wine." E. C. Delavan visited a district in 
Rome where he saw "men, women, and children sitting 
in rows swilling away at wine, making up in quantity what 
was wanting in strength; and such was the character of the 
inmates of those dens that my guide urged my immediate 
departure as I valued my life." 

Hon. Murat Halstead, one of America's leading editors, 
and a traveller with keen powers of observation, writes as 
follows in the December (1890) issue of The Cosmopolitan 
magazine: 

" We have been told so frequently that the great majority 
believe it implicitly, that in Europe the people, having beer 
and wine to drink freely, and taught from childhood to do 
it without misgiving, are temperate, and that less drunken- 
ness is seen by the American traveller abroad than at home. 
It is not true. In all the great cities of Europe there is 
frightful indulgence in liquors, and the comparative absence 
of boisterous intoxication remarked on the streets is because 
the people are not in the habit of asserting themselves, 
drunk or sober, in the American style. A drunken man in 
Europe never thinks of announcing himself by a war- 
whoop. He is content to besot himself and go to sleep; but 
one sees in European capitals, especially English and Scotch 
seaports, more violent drunkenness of women than is forced 
upon attention in notorious places in this country. The 
leading idea of the European drunkard is not individual 
ostentation, but indulgence in the boozy luxury of utter 
stupidity. Intemperance is the wasting scourge of Europe, 
and there is no such public opinion as we have to restrain 
those prone to excess, and to prevent by precept and example 
the formation of the habits that corrode and degrade and 
destroy manliness and womanliness." 



3 1 2 THE WHITE ANGEL 

It is not necessary to extend this inquiry to the other coun- 
tries of Europe. What has been quoted must suffice to show 
that intemperance is on the increase in most European coun- 
tries, distilled spirits taking in a growing degree the place 
of wine and beer in countries where these have long been 
the national beverages. As was the case in Sweden, so else- 
where in Europe, the situation must in time become intol- 
erable, and stringent license laws, which will need to be in 
a considerable degree prohibitory in character, cannot fail 
eventually to be passed. The American prohibitory move- 
ment must in time make itself felt throughout the older 
countries of Europe, even though complete legal prohi- 
bition may not be adopted. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE FIRST WA VE OF PROHIBITION. 

r I ^HE effort to restrict the traffic in intoxicating liquors 
-*■ and to diminish intemperance has taken, as we have 
seen, three different forms — that of moral suasion, that of 
excise or license tax, and that of legal prohibition. The 
history of the first two of these down to a somewhat recent 
date we have reviewed. It remains to bring the story of 
the prohibitory movement down to the same period. 

The history of prohibition in the past is but a brief one. 
Some statements in relation to it we have already made. 
There are a few others on record which may be here given. 
It is said, for instance, that a prohibitory edict was passed 
in China more than four thousand years ago. Du Halde, 
in his Annals of the Monarchs, has the following remark: 
"Under the government of Yu or Ta Yu, 2207 b. c, an 
ingenious farmer invented wine from rice. The emperor, 
seeing that its use was likely to be attended with evil con- 
sequences, expressly forbade the manufacture or drinking of 
it under the severest penalties, and even renounced its use 
himself, and dismissed his cup-bearer, lest the princes 
should be demoralized by it." 

Henderson tells us that "in the reign of Claudius an 
edict was issued for the suppression" in Rome of the 
drinking-houses, which had become mischievous and ob- 
noxious. From another writer we learn that in Mysore, a 
country of Southern India, drunkenness from tari, a liquor 



3 1 4 THE WHITE ANGEL 

made from the sap of the wild palm tree, " increased to such 
an extent that the sultan Tippoo issued an order that all the 
trees be cut down. ' ' This, like the rooting up of the grape- 
vines in China, was certainly an efficient prohibitory meas- 
ure while these remained the principal sources of drunken- 
ness. In our days, when the absolute necessaries of life are 
made the basis of intoxicating liquors, such drastic measures 
are no longer admissible. 

In modern Europe we learn that from 1753 to 1756, and 
again from 1772 to 1775, the sale of ardent spirits was pro- 
hibited in Sweden, and the law vigorously maintained, with 
' ( enormous benefits, ' ' moral and economical. In this con- 
nection it may be of interest to state that the most famous 
and remarkable of the sons of Sweden, Emanuel Sweden- 
horg, placed himself strongly on record at this period in 
favor of high license and of prohibition if possible. In a 
memorial to the Swedish Diet of November 17, 1760, he 
says: "If the distilling of whiskey — provided the public 
can be prevailed on to accede to the measure — were farmed 
-out in all judicial districts, and also in towns, to the highest 
bidder, a considerable revenue might be obtained for the 
country, and the consumption of grain might also be re- 
duced; that is, if the consumption of whiskey cannot be 
done away with altogether, which would be more desirable 
for the country's welfare and morality than all the income 
which could be realized from so pernicious a drink." 

As we have described in the last chapter, local prohi- 
bition of the liquor traffic has been maintained in many 
parishes of Sweden during the past thirty years. Interest- 
ing prohibitory movements have also been made in Great 
Britain and Ireland, an account of which must be left un- 
til after we have told the story of restrictive efforts in 
America. 

Edicts of a partially or fully prohibitory character were 



OF THE WORLD. 315 

passed from time to time during the early colonial history 
of this country. Thus, the commission for the government 
of Newfoundland, issued in 1630, positively forbade the sale 
of liquor of any kind to the fishermen, and even tobacco 
was prohibited. In 1637 the General Court of Massachu- 
setts forbade the sale, by keepers of ordinaries, of ' ' either 
sack or strong water." A more stringent measure was intro- 
duced in 1676 into the constitution of Virginia, in which 
1 ' the sale of wines and ardent spirits was absolutely pro- 
hibited throughout the whole country," with an exception 
in favor of Jamestown. The indications of history are that 
these efforts were not very successful in checking the traffic. 

The prohibitory movement of the present century within 
the United States began with the refusal to grant licenses in 
certain localities. The earliest case on record is that of the 
town of Harwich, Mass., where in 1829 the selectmen were 
instructed not to grant licenses. This law was not enforced 
without difficulty, but by vigorous prosecution the liquor- 
sellers were driven from the town. 

The example here given was quickly followed elsewhere. 
Other towns in Massachusetts, as well as several cities and 
towns in all the New England and in some other States, 
refused to grant licenses. The enthusiasm of the first 
movement against intemperance was now active, and 
everywhere the sober and moral portion of the commun- 
ity rallied to its support. In Connecticut, New York, and 
Michigan the question of license or no license was submit- 
ted by the legislatures to a popular vote. As a result, two 
hundred out of two hundred and twenty towns of Connecti- 
cut elected temperance commissioners; in Michigan a major- 
ity of the towns voted against license; while in New York 
more than five-sixths of the towns and cities gave large 
majorities against license. 

Such were the first steps taken in that movement toward 



3i6 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



prohibition which has gathered such strength during the 
succeeding period. It is somewhat remarkable that in four 
or five years such a wave of change could have swept over 
the country. In 1825 almost everybody drank freely, from 
minister and deacon to sot and vagabond, and hardly a voice 
was raised against the traffic. In 1829 an ^ subsequently the 
tide of opinion had so veered that "no license" laws were 
passed in hundreds of towns. The moral sense of the re- 




A Respectable Sin. 



spectable portion of the community had risen and made 
itself felt. Yet it was simply impossible that such laws, at 
that period, could be made effective. The community had 



OF THE WORLD. 



3*7 



not been educated up to the temperance level, the thirst for 
drink continued strong, and drunkenness remained a re- 
spectable sin, which any one might commit with social 
impunity. Rumselling was also accounted an honorable 
business. With such a state of public opinion, and with 
laws ill adapted to their purpose, it is not surprising that 
this early effort to prohibit the sale of liquor was but tem- 
porarily effective. Yet it paved the way to new efforts in 
the same direction. 

Ere proceeding to describe the subsequent legislative 
events an appropriate 
anecdote may be intro- 
duced: 

" After the city of 
Providence had voted 
'no license,' and while 
the wrath of the liquor- 
dealers was at its height, 
an amusing incident oc- 
curred on Christian Hill. 
A drunken fellow was 
seen near the c Hoyle 
Tavern,' in the western 
part of the city, digging 
away at the foot of a cer- 
tain pole. 

" ' Hallo! what are you 
doing there?' inquired a 
passer-by. 

"The boozy digger a I 
looked up and replied: ~^ 
i Our liberties are all — 
hie — taken away, and 
it's only a mo-mockery to have liberty poles sticking up 




«^cCT 



The Drunkard's Liberty Pole. 



3l8 9 THE WHITE ANGEL 

about the — hie — city when we've got no liberty; and I'm 
going to dig 'em down.' 

" 'liberty poles indeed, you blockhead!' replied the gen- 
tleman. * Why, look up and see what is over your head. ' 

■ ' The fellow looked and saw the tavern-sign swinging 
from the pole. He had (not without warrant, in fact) taken 
the tavern signpost for the liberty pole, and was diligently 
laboring to bring it in disgrace to the earth." 

Another boozer offers the following vigorous argument in 
support of license: •* Now, I axes, you fellers, who's the best 
citizen, him as supports government or him as doesn't? 
Why him as does, of course. We support government; 
every man as drinks supports government; that is, if he 
lickers at a licensed house. S'pose we was to quit drinkin' ; 
why, the government must fall; it couldn't help it, nohow. 
That's the very reason I drinks. I don't like grog; I mor- 
tally hates it. If I followed my own inclination I'd rather 
drink buttermilk or ginger-pop or sody-water. But I lick- 
ers for the good of my country, to set an example of patriot- 
ism and wirtus self-denial to the risin' generation." 

To those who may think this anecdote too trifling for a 
serious work we may answer that it embodies the strongest 
argument adduced by rumsellers, which is exposed here 
to the contempt which it deserves. 

THE MAINE LAW. 

In 1832 a State Temperance Society was formed in Maine 
on the basis of abstinence from distilled spirits. After a 
few years this society virtually ceased to exist. But the 
friends of temperance rallied, organized a new society on 
the platform of total abstinence, and at once declared in 
favor of prohibition. 

This action in Maine is of the utmost importance in the 
history of the temperance reform. That State was not only 



OF THE WORLD. 2> l 9 

the first to pass a prohibitory law, but it has until the pres- 
ent time maintained that law in working order, adding to its 
efficacy from time to time, until the " Maine Law" has be- 
come known throughout the civilized world as a synonym 
for the suppression of the liquor traffic. Such being the 
case, some detailed account of this important measure is 
here of importance. 

In 1837 the new total-abstinence State society petitioned 
the legislature not only to annul all license laws, but also 
for "an entire prohibition of all sale, except for medicine 
and the arts." This petition produced no law, but the dis- 
cussion which it provoked was a useful step in the desired 
direction. v 

No further legislative action was taken until 1844, in 
which year the Hon. Neal Dow, who has since that period 
been looked upon as the father of prohibitory legislation in 
America, prepared and presented to the legislature a petition 
"that the traffic in intoxicating drinks might be held and. 
adjudged as an infamous crime." 

His reasons for this movement may be briefly given. At 
that era, as he says, the sale of liquors was free to all who 
chose to engage in it, and the drink habit was nearly uni- 
versal. Maine was the poorest State in the Union, its people 
spending for liquor more than the entire value of the prop- 
erty of the State every twenty years. Great quantities of 
molasses to be consumed in the manufacture of rum were 
imported from the West Indies in exchange for fish and 
lumber. In addition to the spirits produced from this, West 
India rum was largely imported. 

Fish and lumber were the principal products of the State. 
These products were in great part exchanged for spirits, 
which consumed the wages of the people to such an extent 
that but a meagre fraction was left for subsistence. It was 
the common saying at that period that the people of Maine 



320 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



lived on potatoes, fish, and clams. Rum might have been 
added to this list. The results were everywhere seen in 
dilapidated buildings, neglected farms, and general decay, 
while the habits of the people were idle and shiftless. 




The Voice of the Tempter. 



Evidently, if the State was ever to become prosperous 
this fatal traffic must be diminished or annihilated. This 
Mr. Dow clearly saw, and he has devoted his life to the 
regeneration of Maine. His first petition resulted in a bill 
which passed the House, but was defeated in the Senate. 
In the following year defeat again attended his efforts. It 
was then determined to abandon this method and appeal 
directly to the people. 



OF THE WORLD. 321 

The method of this appeal he has himself told us: 
■ ' There was no little country town-house or country 
church or wayside school-house in which the people were 
not called together to consider this matter. The workers 
went about the State in winter and summer, driving about 
in their own carriages, and carrying with them great quan- 
tities of tracts, all treating of this question, some of them 
written expressly upon it. 

1 ' These were freely given away at the public meetings, 
and were distributed at the homes and profusely among the 
children at the public schools in cities, villages, and country 
towns. These tracts were intended to show the sin and 
folly of the drink habit and the inevitable tendency of the 
liquor-traffic to waste the wages of labor and the profits of 
all legitimate business, and to make nation, State, and peo- 
ple poor. It was pointed out that the liquor-traffic earns 
nothing, not contributing a dollar to the sum of national 
wealth — that it lives upon the earnings of honest industry, 
while at the same time it disinclines to honest labor, and 
finally unfits for it all who come under its influence. 

( ' Our experience in this work was that there is no diffi- 
culty in changing public opinion against the liquor-traffic if 
we can only have access to the people — the ( common peo- 
ple,' who will at first listen patiently and then gladly. After 
public opinion had been enlightened, as we thought, upon 
the subject, we went to the legislature with great petitions 
for the enactment of a law of prohibition, and were defeated 
by a great majority. At the ensuing election we defeated 
almost all the men who had voted against our proposition. 
To the new legislature we went with our bill all prepared, 
now known as the Maine law, and it was passed through all 
its stages in one day, the last day of the session to be en- 
acted, and upon its prompt approval by the governor it 
became the law, taking effect from that moment." 



32 2 THE WHITE ANGEL 

This statement refers to the law of 1851. Previously, in 
1846, a law had been passed "abolishing the license system 
and leaving all sale forbidden." This law proved insuf- 
ficient for the purpose intended, and was replaced by the 
more stringent and effective measure of 1 851, of which Neal 
Dow speaks in the following words : ' ' On that day, the 2d 
of June, 1 85 1, there was license to the liquor- traffic in 
Maine, as there was in all the civilized world, and has 
oeen for many centuries. The Maine law reversed that 
policy, and substituted for it the policy of absolute pro- 
hibition of the manufacture of . alcoholic liquors, and their 
sale, except for medicinal and mechanical purposes and 
the arts. This extraordinary measure doomed to seizure, 
confiscation, and destruction all alcoholic liquors found 
within the State if kept for unlawful sale, and the burden 
of proof was put upon owner or claimant to show that 
they were kept and intended only for lawful purposes." 

The effects of the Maine Law, as told by its originator, 
were highly interesting. Its provisions were too sharp and 
stringent to be easily evaded. It went into effect imme- 
diately, and immediately the open sale of liquors came to 
an end. The wholesale trade could not be carried on 
clandestinely, and it completely ceased. The dealers sent 
their stocks hastily out of the State. In all the cities and 
large towns there were to be seen lines of wagons and 
trucks laden with liquor-barrels and puncheons on their 
way for shipment to New York, Boston, or other ports. It 
was a remarkable procession, such as had probably never 
been seen before. An imaginative eye might have seen 
in it not only the exodus of rum from the State, but of 
ruin, misery, crime, disease, rags, poverty, death, and all 
the dire train that marches close upon the heels of the 
evil potentate of strong drink. 

The most marked immediate effect of the new law was 




FATE Ok' A MAiiNE RUMSELLER 



324 THE WHITE ANGEL 

the diminution of crime. Within a year the jails of five 
counties had lost all their tenants. In Cumberland the 
most populous county, whose jail had been so crowded as 
to cause censure, but five prisoners remained, three of 
these being rumsellers arrested for violating the law. 

All respectable persons at once abandoned the trade. 
Liquor-shops became the homes of honest industries, and 
nowhere could be seen a painted sign or any other indi- 
cation that liquor was sold. 

Of course it cannot be said that all sale ceased or has 
yet ceased. There were many who would take any means 
to obtain liquor, and many who would take any means to 
supply them. Innumerable schemes were devised to hide 
the contraband article and evade the keen-eyed officers of 
the law, who had the right to search any suspected place 
and seize liquor wherever found. 

' ' In some instances the dealer would carry his stock 
in flat- pint bottles in his coat-pockets or in a flat tin ves- 
sel fitted to the person and worn under the vest. Some- 
times, in the case of women, a flat bottle would be sus- 
pended to the waist and worn under the skirt. Sometimes 
a bottle or two would be suspended by a string and sunk 
in a well in the cellar, or a jug would be hidden under the 
floor, the trap-door being covered by a carpet and perhaps 
by a bed; again, a flat bottle or a jug would be buried in 
the ash-pit at the base of the cooking-stove or hidden in 
the cellar-wall, a stone being taken out to receive them 
and ingeniously replaced to conceal them. These methods 
and many others are employed to-day by the liquor-sellers 
for the same purpose." 

The quantity of liquor that can be distributed in this 
way is very small, and contrasts strikingly with a state of 
affairs in which the signs of wholesale and retail liquor- 
stores obtrusively forced themselves upon every one's eyes, 



OF THE WORLD. 325 

with cargoes of rum unlading at the wharves, long lines 
of casks upon the sidewalks, and the smoke from distillery- 
fires darkening the sky. 

The liquor legally purchased in Maine can only be ob- 
tained at the city agency, where it is permitted to be sold 
for medicine and the arts. That illegally offered for sale 
is, in most places, crowded far out of sight, is necessarily 
small in quantity, and is not likely to be sought by re- 
spectable persons or to tempt the young to that dangerous 
indulgence which is one of the most perilous effects of 
open liquor-selling. 

The law was no sooner passed than it was proclaimed a 
failure, as it has been at frequent intervals since. Apropos 
to this, Mr. Dow tells a story which is worth repeating: 

"A prominent citizen of Philadelphia came to Portland 
in that year expressly to learn, upon the spot, what the 
effect of the law really had been. In Philadelphia, he said, 
it was declared to be a failure. On the journey he stopped 
overnight at Boston. In the morning at the hotel a young 
man was warmly denouncing the law as a sham, declaring 
that liquors were as freely sold in Portland as in any other 
place in the country. A gentleman standing by said: 'Sir, 
I live in Portland; I will pay your expenses there and back 
to Boston, and will give you five dollars for every glass of 
liquor you can buy there.' " 

A later testimony is that given by George William Curtis, 
in no sense a special advocate of prohibition, in the ' ' Easy 
Chair" of Harper's Magazine. 

"It is said derisively," remarked Mr. Curtis, " that a man 
could get as much liquor to drink in Maine as anywhere. 
And so he might, but not agreeably. The ' Easy Chair ' 
proved it. A vague intimation, consisting of a wink, a 
smile, and a nod, conveyed the possibility of getting a drink 
even in the capital city of the temperance commonwealth. 



326 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



Following the wink like a convict, the turnkey and the 
' Easy Chair ' passed through the corridors to a door which 
was unlocked; then down a narrow staircase into a cellar — 
and hotel cellars do not always stimulate the imagination; 
then to another door, which, being duly unlocked and 
closed, and relocked upon the inside, revealed a dark, dim 
room — a cellar in a cellar — with a half dozen black bottles 
and some cloudy glasses. This cheerful entertainment was 
at the pleasure of the convict. The turnkey pours out a 




Drinking in Main) 



glass of something and offers it to his companion. It was 
better than Father Mathew. ( No, thank you, not upon 
these terms.' The turnkey looked amused: ' Wa'al, it isn't 



OF THE WORLD. 327 

exactly gay ! ' and he swallowed the potion, and, leading the 
way, furtively opened the door again and locked it; and the 
two revellers, with the jollity of conscious malefactors, stole 
back again into the light of day." 

The sale of liquor in Maine to-day is in close accordance 
with the degree of vigilance of the officials and the earnest- 
ness of their desire to carry out the law. The rum-traffic 
appears to have vanished from the rural districts, while in 
the cities, with certain exceptions, the ' ' open sesame ' ' to 
the whiskey-bottle is apparently confined to certain trusty 
topers who have learned the useful art of holding their 
tongues. 

Immediately upon the passage of the law the advocates 
of license set themselves diligently at work to secure a 
repeal of the ' ' obnoxious ' ' edict. For several years their 
efforts continued, and were given strength by an unfortu- 
nate affair in 1855. A mob had gathered in the city of Port- 
land, drawn together by some procedure under the Maine 
Law, whose members behaved so riotously that it became 
necessary to disperse them by military force. In doing so 
one man was killed. This fact was used to influence the 
public mind against the prohibitory system, and its enemies 
succeeded in choosing a legislature which in the winter of 
1856 repealed the Maine Law. There was substituted for it 
the most stringent license law ever yet enacted. It proved 
a failure, however, and in 1858 the prohibitory law again 
passed the legislature. Ere putting it into effect it was 
submitted to the people. The vote taken on it was very 
light, but stood for prohibition 28,864; for license, 5912. 

Since that date the law has been maintained, amendments 
being added to it from time to time. The opposition to it 
has steadily grown weaker, and every effort to repeal it has 
failed. For thirty years one State of the Union has floated 
the banner of legalized temperance. 



328 THE WHITE ANGEL 

PROHIBITION IN OTHER STATES. 

Preceding the Maine Law in date was the well-known 
" Fifteen-Gallon Law" of Massachusetts, passed in 1838. 
This law forbade all sale of spirituous liquors 4 ' in less 
quantity than fifteen gallons, and that delivered and car- 
ried away all at one time." No smaller quantities could 
be sold, except by druggists and physicians for use as med- 
icine or in the arts. This law was not long in operation. 
A strong opposition was brought to bear against it, a new 
legislature elected, and it was repealed after eighteen 
months' trial. 

This defeat, however, did not give the State over to the 
liquor interests. The local " no-license" agitation was at 
once renewed, and in a few years licenses had ceased to be 
granted. Even in Boston, as quoted by Mr. Pitman from 
the clerk of that city, ' ' no licenses for the sale of intoxica- 
ting liquors were granted between 1841 and 1852." It can- 
not be said, however, that the sale of liquor ceased. 

The story of the other States which passed prohibitory 
laws at this early period may be briefly told. Delaware 
was the first to follow Maine in legislation to that effect. 
In 1847 the legislature of this State passed a prohibitory 
law which was referred to the people. This reference 
killed it. It was adjudged unconstitutional by the court, 
and the law set aside in consequence. A new prohibitory 
law was passed in 1855 and sustained by the courts. It 
lived but a short life, however. It was repealed in 1857, 
and replaced by a license law. 

The next State to fall into line was New Hampshire, 
which in 1848 submitted to popular vote a prohibitory law. 
A light vote was cast, but it was three to one in favor of 
prohibition. In 1855 a more stringent law was enacted, as 
the original measure had proved inefficacious. Prohibition 
is still the law in that State, though no active effort to en- 



OF THE WORLD. 329 

force it is made, and the rum-thiisty soul need have no dif- 
ficulty in satisfying his appetite. In 1870 a civil-damage 
amendment was added, which makes the liquor-seller re- 
sponsible for damage done by the drunkard, and enables the 
family of any one who has been disabled or has died, either 
through drunkenness or from the act of a drunkard, to re- 
cover damages. 

In 1849, Wisconsin passed a law refusing license until the 
rumsellers had given bonds to pay all damages to individuals 
or the community in consequence of their traffic. A prohib- 
itory law was passed in 1855, but was vetoed by the governor. 

Michigan took similar legal steps in 1850, the new consti- 
tution forbidding the legislature to grant licenses. A pro- 
hibitory law was passed in 1853, but was declared unconsti- 
tutional by the Supreme Court. In 1855 a second law was 
passed in which the objectionable features of the first were 
omitted. This law was sustained, and continued on the 
statute-books until 1875, when it was repealed. 

Ohio in 1851 followed Michigan in refusing to grant 
license. As unlicensed liquor continued to be sold, the 
law was strengthened in 1854 by making liquor-sellers, as 
well as the owners or lessees of buildings rented for the sale 
of liquor, responsible for damages resulting from such sales. 

Minnesota, then a Territory, passed a prohibitory law in 
March, 1852. This required to be ratified by a vote of the 
people, which was done in the next year. The law was an- 
nulled by the Supreme Court, which declared this submis- 
sion to the people unconstitutional. 

In May, 1852, Rhode Island wheeled into line with the 
prohibitory States, passing a law which was amended to 
make it more effective in the following month, and again 
in 1853. It met the fate of several other of the laws men- 
tioned, being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme 
Court of the State. 



330 THE WHITE ANGEL 

The next State to join in the ' ' grand inarch ' ' of prohi- 
bition was Massachusetts, whose law was enacted in the 
same month as that of Rhode Island (May, 1852). This 
law, known locally as the ' ' Maine Law, ' ' was declared un- 
constitutional in some of its provisions, and was replaced by 
a new law in 1855. This also was submitted to the sharpest 
fire of the courts, but proved so well devised as to stand 
every test of legal criticism. ' ' It closed up the liquor-shops 
in three-fourths of the towns of the Commonwealth, drove 
open bars from many of the secondary cities, and grappled 
with the monster traffic in the great rum-citadel of Boston. * ' 
From i860, when the law first fairly began to operate, to 
1866, the drinking-places in Boston decreased from 2220 to 
15 1 5, a decrease of 705 in six years. In the smaller cities it 
was far more effective, except in those where the authorities 
were opposed to the law and no effort was made to enforce 
it. The war had undoubtedly much to do with this lack of 
effective enforcement. 

In 1868 the law was repealed, but was re-enacted in 1869, 
malt liquors being excepted. The report of the chaplain of 
the State prison for this year of licensed sale says: " The 
prison never has been so full as at the present time. If the 
rapidly-increasing tide of intemperance, so greatly shown by 
the present wretched license law, is suffered to rush on un- 
checked, there will be a fearful increase of crime, and the 
State must soon extend the limits of the prison or erect 
another. ' ' 

In 1875 prohibition was again repealed, and a license law 
passed which provided that towns and cities could refuse to 
grant licenses. 

In the same year with the States last mentioned (1852) 
Vermont passed a prohibitory law, which was ratified by a 
popular vote in 1853. This law, like those of Maine and 
New Hampshire, is still in existence, and has been strength- 



OF THE WORLD. 33 1 

ened by subsidiary bills in 1869, 1879, an< ^ *&&o containing 
( i civil-damage ' ' features and providing for the suppression 
of nuisances. 

It is not claimed that this law has been sustained as effi- 
ciently as that of Maine, yet it has very much diminished 
drunkenness. Governor Peck says of its workings: " You 
cannot change the habits of a people momentarily. The 
law has had an effect upon our customs, and has done away 

with that of treating and promiscuous drinking I 

think the law is educating the people, and that a much 
larger number now support it than when it was adopted; 
in fact, the opposition is dying out." 

Governor Con vers says : ' c There is no question about the 
decrease in the consumption of liquor. I speak from per- 
sonal knowledge, having always lived in the State. I live 
in Woodstock, and there no man having the least regard for 
himself would admit selling rum, even though no penalty 
attached to it." 

Liquor is, at all events, forced to hide its head in every 
district where there is even a mild effort of the law officers 
to do their duty. A moral force is accumulating against it, 
honesty and respectability shun it, and whiskey-drinking 
has ceased to be a part of the outdoor education of grow- 
ing 3'outh. Yet in many parts of the State the clandestine 
traffic is winked at, as would appear from the following 
story: A stranger to Vermont, who was interested in the 
workings of the law, was informed by a St. Albans gentle- 
man whom he questioned that there was no trouble in pro- 
curing whiskey. ' ' I am in possession of a funny secret, ' ' 
he said, "which is shared by most of our citizens who like 
a little stimulant occasionally. Come with me." 

The story continues, in the words of the narrator: "He 
took me to a cross-street, and we entered a room which ap- 
peared to be a cigar-store, with confectionery, etc. We took 



332 THE WHITE ANGEL 

seats at the rear, and my friend told me to keep my eyes 
open. 

' ' Within twenty minutes I saw ten or twelve gentlemen 
come in, some in pairs, some singly, some in little parties, 
go to the water-cooler, take a drink, buy cigars, and go out. 

' ' My friend finally asked me if I had seen any liquor 
sold, and I said, 4 No.' 

' ' ' Nevertheless, ' said he, 4 every gentleman who came in 
here took a good square drink of whiskey and paid for it. ' 

1 ' ' Well, ' said I, ' the drink must have been in the cooler 
or in the cigars. Yet it could not have been in the latter, 
for most of them were lighted before the purchaser left. It 
must be in the cooler.' 

" ' Well, go and draw some,' said he. 

" I went to the cooler, held the glass under the nozzle, 
and pressed down the button. I was rewarded for my ex- 
ertions by a flow of clear, cold water that soon filled the 
tumbler. I was puzzled, and my friend and the proprietor 
greatly enjoyed it. 

" My friend took the empty glass and drew from the same 
faucet half a glass of whiskey. If I was puzzled before, I 
was now thunderstruck, and after laughing at me a while 
the trick was explained. It was simple. Press down the 
button and the water runs; press up with the thumb from 
below, while you appear to press down with the fore finger, 
and you get whiskey; open the cooler and you will find it 
full of ice- water. The whiskey comes from a cask in a hid- 
den closet up stairs, and flows through a small pipe which 
descends in the partition and passes ' from the wall into the 
bottom of the cooler and connects with the faucet." 

Such a trick as this could not long deceive any sharp- 
eyed detective, but might be very effective in the case of 
officers who did not want to see. 

The next State to pass a prohibitory bill was Connecticut, 



OF THE WORLD. 333, 

whose measure was enacted in 1853. This hill was vetoed 
by the governor, but another was passed the following year, 
and continued in force until 1872. Of the operation of 
this law Governor Dutton said in 1855: "There is scarcely 
an open grogshop in the State, the jails are fast becoming 
tenantless, and a delightful air of security is everywhere 
enjoyed." Before the repeal of the law, however, the 
effort to enforce it nearly ceased and liquor-selling went 
on with impunity. 

Indiana passed a prohibitory bill in 1853, ^ ut it was de- 
clared unconstitutional. Another law was passed in 1855, 
but the courts failed to sustain it. It was replaced by a. 
license law in 1874. 

In 1854, New York passed a prohibitory law which was- 
vetoed by Governor Seymour. It was re-enacted the fol- 
lowing year, but as some of its clauses were pronounced 
unconstitutional, it was replaced by a license law in 1857. 

A sad story is told in connection with the decision of the 
Court of Appeals that the law was unconstitutional : " A 
most tragic event followed the decision of the court in the 
death of Benjamin F. Harwood, the long-beloved and hon- 
ored clerk of the court. The prohibitory law was his only 
hope of escape from that terrible death which follows the 
cup. On the morning of the decision he entreated one of 
the judges to spare the law. Said he, ' Sir, you know that 
I am addicted to drinking, but you do not know — no per- 
son can know — how much I have struggled to break off this 
habit. Sometimes I have succeeded, but then these accursed 
liquor-bars, like so many man-traps, have effected my fall. 
For this reason I have labored for the prohibitory law. 
Your decision is with me a matter of life or death.' 

"When the decision was handed him to record he felt it 
to be like signing his own death-warrant. Hope failed him. 
despair seized him ; amid the horrors of delirium tremens,. 



334 THE WHITE ANGEL 

when four men could not hold him, he sank away, and in 
less than four days was no more, sentenced to death by the 
decision in the Court of Appeals." 

Pennsylvania in 1855 passed a law that gave so little sat- 
isfaction that it was derisively called the "Jug L,aw." In 
substance it prohibited the sale of liquor to be drank on the 
premises, but permitted it to be sold by the quart to be car- 
ried home and imbibed. It was repealed the next year. It 
had been preceded in 1846 by a no-license act, which was 
declared unconstitutional by the courts. 

The remaining States to pass prohibitory laws during the 
period in question were Illinois and Iowa. That of Illinois, 
passed in 1855, allowed the manufacture of cider and wine 
and their sale in five-gallon lots. It was submitted to a 
vote of the people, who rejected it. In the same year Iowa 
passed a prohibitory bill which the people ratified. It is 
still in force, with the exception that in 1858 it was amended 
to permit the sale of fermented liquors, which amendment 
continued in force until 1881. The Territory of Nebraska 
also passed a prohibitory law in 1855, the Y ear which was 
distinguished by so many prohibition measures. 

Thus, during the period from 1851 to 1855 no less than 
fourteen States and two Territories passed laws fully or in 
great measure prohibitory. It was a wave of legal sup- 
pression of the traffic that matched the Washingtonian wave 
of moral suasion ten years before. It formed, indeed, the 
third great era in the history of the temperance reform. 
The first effort of propagandism, which began in 1826 and 
had an extraordinary effect, had lost much of its force by 
1840, the year in which the Washingtonian "appeal to 
drunkards" began. This second high tide of reform also 
sank away after a few years and was succeeded by a tidal 
wave of prohibition, which swept widely over the country 
and had for the time being striking effects, though its in- 



OF THE WORLD. 



335 



fluence, in turn, greatly declined after a term of years. Yet 
the influence of none of these movements quite vanished. 
Bach helped onward the reform and paved the way to 




The Bars Down. 



new movements; and in spite of the spasmodic risings and 
fallings of the tide of enthusiasm the current of reform 
has swept steadily onward, and is to-day very far in advance 
of its position fifty or sixty years ago. 



agJi rACTo'R YnS-^, 




The Bars Up. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE FRUITS AND FUTURE OF PROHIBITION. 

' | ^HE reasons which impel the friends of Prohibition to 
-*■ favor the legal suppression of the liquor traffic are not 
only manifold, but manifest. The slaves of the South were 
made free through the sympathy and sacrifices of free men. 
The slaves of the drink curse likewise are to be freed 
through the labors and laws of sober, patriotic, and God- 
serving people. The results already obtained by these people 
through their method of treatment are worthy to be recorded 
as prophecies of completer benefits yet to be secured. 

PROHIBITION IN THE BRITISH ISLES. 

It may not be amiss at this point to speak of the pro- 
hibitory measures that have been adopted in Great Britain, 
though most of them belong to a later date than that under 
consideration. Something of the kind existed, indeed, as 
long ago as 1760. John Wesley speaks of having visited 
three German settlements in Ireland in the vicinity of 
Limerick. There was no ale-house in any of these, ' ( no 
cursing or swearing, no Sabbath-breaking, no drunken- 
ness." . . . . U I suppose three such towns are scarcely to 
be found again in England or Ireland." 

The two most noted prohibition settlements in England 

and Ireland are the manufacturing towns of Saltaire and 

Bessbrook. Saltaire, a town near Bradford, Yorkshire, with 

at present five thousand inhabitants, has for many years been 

336 



OF THE WORLD. 331 

free from the curse of drink. Prohibition there was estab- 
lished by Sir Titus Salt, the founder of the settlement. For 
one year (1867-68) "table beer" was permitted to be sold. 
But even this mild beverage introduced such disorder that 
it was quickly banished. No liquor of any kind is now sold 
in the town. As result, ' ' there are scarcely ever any ar- 
rears of rent. Infant mortality is very low as compared with 
that of Bradford, from which place the majority of the hands 
have come. The tone and self-respect of the workpeople are 
much greater than that of factory-hands generally. Their 
wages are not high, but they enable them to secure more of 
the comforts and decencies of life than they could elsewhere, 
owing to the facilities placed within their reach and the ab- 
sence of drinking-houses. " 

The town itself is thus attractively described: " Institute, 
school, and chapels point their spires into the ether; neat 
cottages run therefrom at right angles through clean and 
wide streets; trees form green oases in a by no means des- 
ert; the green park is an added area of lawn and terrace; 
and northward the background is one of wood and water, of 
road and river, of bank and bosky dell. Saltaire is a hive 
in green lanes; an immense home of order in Arcadia; a 
great industrial exhibition in green fields." 

Bessbrook, the Irish Saltaire, is a town of four thousand 
inhabitants pleasantly situated in the county of Armagh. 
Its proprietor is Mr. John Grubb Richardson, a member of 
the Society of Friends. ' ' The distinguishing feature of the 
town is the absence of drink-shops, and consequently the 
absence of crime, pauperism, pawn-shops, and policemen. 
.... Though the inhabitants are all Irish, there are no 
quarrelling and no filthy apartments, with chickens and 
pigs as joint occupiers." 

In the words of a visitor to the place: " I carried an in- 
quiring mind into Bessbrook, and, though I made no domi- 
22 



^8 THE WHITE ANGEL 



30 



ciliary visits worth mentioning, nor stopped any operative to 
search him or her for the secret bottle, I can truly report 
that the evidence was strongly in favor of universal and 
seldom-broken sobriety — that is to say, of rigid and total 

abstinence from all stimulating liquors An isolated 

position is in favor of Bessbrook, for, not to speak of com- 
fortable homes, the people determined on quitting the place 
would leave it without being able to go next door, as it were. 
And certainly when I came to look at the beautiful neatness 
of the village, and saw the economic method of trading, and 
the high order of management in the co-operative stores, I 
could not avoid the conclusion that a prudent man or woman 
would be loath to part with benefits so real and, unhappily, 
so rare It is also a boast of Bessbrook that the pawn- 
office is neither known nor missed in these prudent precincts; 
and, more wonderful yet, there is no police-station." 

The remaining prohibition districts may be more briefly 
mentioned. In Tyrone county, Ireland, there is a district 
of sixty-one square miles, with nearly ten thousand inhab- 
itants, from which the people themselves have banished 
public-houses. 

"The result has been," says Lord Claude Hamilton, 
representative of the county, ' ' that whereas in former 
times the highroads were constant scenes of strife and 
drunkenness, necessitating a very considerable number of 
police to be located in the district, at present there is not 
a single policeman in that district, the poor-rates are half 
what they were before, and all the police and magistrates 
testify to the great absence of crime." 

In the province of Canterbury, England, there were in 
1869, according to a committee report, more than a thousand 
parishes in which was neither public-house nor beer-shop. 
The good effect on the intelligence, morality, and comfort 
of the people was very marked. 



OF THE WORLD. 



339 



The Shaftesbury Park estate, with three to four thousand 
inhabitants, is strictly prohibitory, and the comfort and 
morality of the people are spoken of in the highest terms. 
A writer says: " I have never heard a drunken brawl, never 




Pawning the Doll. 

known but one case of a domestic disturbance, and that 
arose from a husband ' mildly correcting ' a wife who before 
coming on the estate had learned to be too fond of her beer. 
During the past summer the streets, which are broad and 
well-kept, have been made beautiful by the splendid show 



34-0 THE WHITE ANGEL 

of flowers in which the inhabitants have indulged almost 

without an exception Strange as it may appear, the 

inhabitants, though by no means exclusively teetotallers, are 
perfectly satisfied, and do not wish that great institution, 
the beer-barrel, to be introduced." 

Other prohibitory regions may be found in Northumber- 
land, where in many villages no liquor is sold, and on the 
Mersey, where there is a considerable number of large set- 
tlements whose proprietors forbid public-houses. The same 
story of the good effects of prohibition is told of these local- 
ities. 

Of the Low Moor settlement in Lancashire, founded by 
the Messrs. Garnett, cotton manufacturers, one of the pro- 
prietors said in 1871: "We send some account of the com- 
munity at Low Moor, which we are happy to say still re- 
mains without a beer-shop or a public-house. Indeed, we 
are deficient of so many of the usual adjuncts of civilization 
that we occasionally fancy it is like no other place — certainly 
it is like none with which we are acquainted. It has neither 
doctor, lawyer, nor, until lately, parson or magistrate ; neither 
has it a constable or policeman. It has neither public-house 
nor beer-shop, dram-shop, pawn-shop, nor tommy-shop. It 
has neither stocks nor jail nor lockup. We have a popula- 
tion of about eleven hundred. Our people can sleep with 
their doors open, and we have the finest fruit in the district, 
in season, in our mill-windows (which are never fastened) 
without any ever being stolen. Our death-rate is perhaps 
the lowest in the kingdom; taking the average of the 
last twelve years, it is under sixteen in the thousand. " 

This chapter may be fitly closed with one further quota- 
tion, taken from the Bacchus Dethroned of Mr. Frederick 
Powell: "We may here refer to two villages in Northumber- 
land possessing many features in common — the one C — ge, 
the other C — o. Both are pleasantly situated, the surround- 



OF THE WORLD. 



341 



ing scenery picturesque and beautiful, though the former has 
the advantage. Both have railway communication with con- 
siderable towns a few miles distant; both also are purely 
agricultural. In each village there is a reading-room and 
library and a national school under government inspection. 
In both the religious wants of the people are well attended 
to, there being in the larger village a church and three 
chapels; in the smaller, a church only. 




The Village of Temperance. 



The Village of Intemperance. 



" There is, however, one striking point of contrast. The 
village of C — o belongs to Sir W. C. Trevelyan, Bt, and 
there are no public-houses or beer-shops in it. For the 
accommodation of travellers there is a large and commo- 
dious temperance hotel at the railway-station, with livery- 
stable and horses and conveyances for hire. The general 
condition of this village is satisfactory. The reading-room 
and library are well patronized ; the homes of the people are 
remarkable for their comfortable and tidy appearance; the 
inhabitants are characterized by intelligence, civility, and 
sobriety. Crime, pauperism, and strife are unknown. 

1 ( In the former village, C — ge, there are seven public- 



34 2 THE WHITE ANGEL 

houses and about half a dozen small shops for the sale of 
table beer. Omitting the latter, there is one public-house to 
every one hundred and seventy inhabitants. Now, what are 
the fruits? Why, there is much drunkenness among the 
people. Many families in consequence are reduced to pov- 
erty, crimes of violence and theft are of frequent occurrence, 
and the grossest immoralities abound. The moral tone of 
the village is exceedingly low, the reading-room and library 
are neglected, a large proportion of the inhabitants attend 
no place of worship, and no recreations but those of a gross 
character are relished." 

The comparison here made is a significant indication of 
the effects upon the tone of society which are produced by 
intoxication. No one can affirm that prohibition is the great 
gateway to the millennium, yet it may be safely said that 
sobriety is one of the highroads leading in that direction. 

So many and great have been the local benefits of the sup^ 
pression of the drink traffic, in whatever places it has been 
seriously labored for, that no valuable argument against the 
measure remains to be considered by honest people. All 
that can be urged against it is the failure of successful 
administration in those places' where the officers of the law 
make the law of none effect to please the liquor-dealers and 
retain their powerful political support. This is not an argu- 
ment against the law. It is a proof that the law is whole- 
some, and needs to be betrayed by its defenders before it can 
be violated with safety by its enemies. 

When all honest observers of affairs agree that strong 
drink is the prolific Pandora's box of modern domestic, 
social, and economic evils, it must result that to suppress 
the cause of these evils is the logical, common-sense duty of 
the public conservators. 

All efforts that have been made by partial reformers and 
legislatures to minify the evils of intemperance, and yet give 



OF THE WORLD. 343 

the traffic in drink a place in the public commerce, have 
finally resulted in confessed failure. L,aws of a purely regu- 
lative or restrictive character may produce a temporary im- 
provement of a local situation, but they soon become helps 
to the ingenious traffickers, instead of hindrances. No law 
that leaves life in the traffic has killed the evil in it. 

WHY IS IT NOT ABOLISHED? 

Because the liquor trade does not wish it, and the liquor 
trade is a most powerful element in our national politics. 
The Internal Revenue is the bond of monopoly and the 
engine of power to the Whiskey Trust of the country. That 
gigantic organization, with its millions of capital and mil- 
lions of profits, with its ability and machinery for raising- 
corruption funds for the emergencies of elections, would be 
ruined by the abolition of the Internal Revenue system. 
It would have no government relation, no national pro- 
tection, no immunity from general and disastrous compe- 
tition, and its dissolution would be immediate and complete. 
Of course the politicians deny most strenuously that consid- 
eration for the welfare of the liquor oligarchy influences their 
actions upon this important matter. But the facts are against 
them. Their attempts to otherwise explain their adhesion 
to the system do not explain. They are inconsistent to the 
border of absurdity. In a recent series of interviews with 
the leaders in Congress they professed, without distinction 
of party, that they perpetuated this Internal-Revenue system 
as a temperance measure whereby to restrict and control the 
traffic, and thus prevent the deluging and debauching of the 
land with "free whiskey." They coolly ignore the well- 
known physical and moral truth, that 

"They who now are given o'er to drink, 

Drink freely, fully, all that they can hold ; 
And they who now are indisposed to drink, 

Will scarce commence because 'tis cheaper sold." 



344 THE WHITE ANGEL 

That doggerel has more decent truth in it than all the silly 
and shambling solicitude for temperance that is put forward 
by these Oily Gammons of the national legislature. Their 
mock unction in behalf of the temperance interests of the 
country deceives no one. 

When we press them on the surplus question, they say the 
surplus must be abolished by the reduction of the taxes on 
' ' the necessaries of life, ' ' and that liquors are luxuries, and 
therefore ought to bear a heavy burden of taxation. Then, 
when we ask them to abolish these luxuries, so productive 
of crime, pauperism, social disorder, and misrule, they de- 
clare that liquors are ' ' necessary ' ' to the people and can- 
not be abolished — that ' ' Prohibition will not prohibit, ' > 
because the people must and will have liquors. So runs 
the inconsistency, so rises to the surface of their duplicity 
the inevitable non sequitur of a luxury that is a necessity 
and a necessary that is a luxury. 

IN STATES AND MUNICIPALITIES 

the line of resistance to Prohibition is the same. It is 
always the argument of revenue. It is money more potent 
than morals, ready cash conquering the conscience. Dema- 
gogic officials seek favor with the masses by abnormal 
devices to shift the public burdens, and that widespread 
monomania, enmity to taxation, moves the people to blindly 
accept a pleasing fiction of figures in the stead of the genu- 
ine logic of facts and profits of experience. The citizens of 
a city will stubbornly cling to its liquor saloons in consider- 
ation of a gross annual revenue therefrom of $25,000, and 
often much less than that, and then indignantly stop their 
ears to every demonstration of the truth that the traffic costs 
them directly vastly more than the sum it pays; nay, more 
than it could pay and live. It is fairly "love's labor lost" 
to show them how perfectly they are realizing the myth of 



OF THE WORLD. 345 

the man who bought the elephant at auction, and then bank- 
rupted himself trying to keep its appetite appeased. The 
elephant is a mild figure for the liquor traffic and its con- 
sumption of property and prosperity. If my personal expe- 
rience when a liquor-consumer may be taken as indicative, 
I would rather have the whole of Barnum's elephant herd to 
board than undertake to supply the patronage and profits of 
one average whiskey-shop. The most reliable statistics of the 
cost of the liquor evil to a people show that the actual out- 
lay on account of it is from #7 to $11 for every $1 of income 
from it. Take the State of New York, and its actual ex- 
penses for the keeping of criminals, paupers, and other 
products of the liquor traffic are $25,000,000, while the total 
revenue derived from the trade is about $3,000,000. This 
leaves out of account all the personal and indirect damages 
done by the saloons, and is, strangely enough for New York 
to exhibit it, one of the lowest proportions shown anywhere 
in the Union. The average for all the States is considerably 
more against the people's purse. Yet with all these facts 
made the common knowledge of the public, we are still told 
that this is an evil that must be 

REGULATED, BUT NOT ABOLISHED. 

Then, in the name of common sense, law, and righteous 
ethics, when does an evil justify its prohibition? We are 
told that Prohibition will be the proper thing at some re- 
mote period of the future, when public sentiment is prepared 
to endorse and enforce it ? When shall that time be ? Will 
the liquor evil ever be a worse form of evil than it is now? 
In which direction does its evolution proceed? If it is getting 
worse, how much worse must it become before public opin- 
ion will consent to its being guillotined ? If it is getting 
less evil, in obedience to what law of sequences will public 
opinion grow stronger against it ? Here, indeed, is a rever- 



346 THE WHITE ANGEL 

sal of all the known laws of cause and effect. It is the illog- 
ical douceur of deceivers and not the candid reasoning of 
honest men. Who will be caught with such chaff? 

The earnest and honest Prohibitionists of the country 
cannot be taken captive by any such illusion. They know 
the depravity and the desperateness of the liquor traffic, and 
they have learned by a thousand foolish and fruitless ex- 
periments with minor measures that suppression, absolute,* 
total, and hopelessly irreversible, is the only remedy to 
apply to it. This is our demand of the government — the 
government of the State and the government of the Nation. 
We are not to be duped nor to be denied. 

WE HAVE COME TO STAY. 

Some of us have come sober from our mother's knees, 
with her golden benediction on our heads and her inspired 
counsel written upon our hearts. Her prayers for the sal- 
vation of her sons from the assaults and destruction of this 
monstrous evil are written indelibly upon the preface pages 
of our memories. Our first loyal pledges to her never to 
succumb nor surrender in this holy warfare against the 
Drink Devil and his devices are renewed with our every 
morning consecration to Christ and our every evening com- 
mittal to God. We cannot be false to her and true to the 
Lord whom she taught lis to love; we cannot be true to Him 
if we are false to our country's good and the emancipation 
of our rum-enslaved countrymen. Some of us have come 
from homes over whose scenes of love and self-sacrifice 
had been laid the trail of the serpent. We have seen seal 
after seal fixed upon the sepulchres of dead and skeletoned 
hopes. We have seen tears suppressed and bottled in hearts 
that broke with the excess of their sorrows. We have seen 
the telltale tresses of a mother's head, in the rum-ridden 
air of an unhappy home, bleach and crisp into a coronal to 



OF THE WORLD. 347 

garnish her untimely tomb. We have wept over the erring 
loved one, suffered all the crucifixion of vicarious humil- 
iation, and learned the great lesson of abstinence in the 
kindergarten of grief and disgrace. 

Some of us have ourselves ' ' come up through much trib- 
ulation " by the drunkard's dismal, circuitous, staggering 
•way. We yielded ourselves instruments of the unrighteous- 
ness of self-indulgence with this fluid fiend. We learned 
too late the awful and infernal power it usurps over the will, 
the affections, the better faculties and purposes of men. We 
nave tasted the poison of its asp-like pleasures, felt the keen 
thrills of its insidious captivity, and awakened to find our- 
selves shorn Samsons in the tent of Delilah. We have strug- 
gled against the invisible bands of our bondage, fought ' ' as 
with beasts at Ephesus " against the utterness of our undo- 
ing, and mingled the prayers of a penitent with the draughts 
that sealed our slavery. We know the hopeless, helpless, 
horrid sense of sorrow that paralyzes all moral energy; the 
recognition of a lost estate that emasculates all ambition; the 
self-imposed verdict of shame, apostasy, and excommunica- 
tion which makes the recreant refuse all outstretched aid, 
and, like a man made mad in drowning, fight and foil the 
friendly hands that seek his rescue. We have trodden this 
serpent-strewn descensus Averni with the heartbreakings of 
mother and wife, the shudder and shrieks of suffering little 
ones making - the miserere of our march, until all prayers, 
all sobs, all wails, all mournings swept suddenly into the 
tumultuous fugue of a hellward flight! Saved by the sov- 
ereign arrest of a " still small voice, ' ' uplifted by the omnip- 
otent Arm, transformed through the pangs of the new birth, 
and led by the example of the Saviour Himself, we turn 
oack to the rescue of our fellow-spirits in prison. 

Can an army so enlisted be beaten in battle ? Do not the 
.stars in their courses lead them the wav wherein comes con- 



348 THE WHITE ANGEL 

quest ? Do not the angels, the horses of heaven, the flam- 
ing chariots of the invisible Omnipotency, go with them 
from victory to victory ? Shall not the great Captain lead 
them to glorious triumph ? 
We believe that 

" Freedom's battle, once begun, 
Bequeathed by loyal sire to son, 
Though baffled oft, is ever won." 

Some day the nation will awake to its impending peril. 
Some day our sons will look back upon our stupid blunder- 
ings, as we do now upon the witch-stakes of Salem and the 
slave-marts of the South, and materialize their amazement 
in the swift and righteous reversal of all our rum-soaked and 
gold-bought legislation. Some day the Church of Christ 
will stand, an unbroken host, purged of every palterer, hys- 
sop-cleansed from every hypocrisy, disenthralled from all 
cowardly ' ' conservatisms ;' ' some day the politician of the 
slums will fall back and make room for the leadership of 
the patriot of the sanctuary. Some day the rights of pos- 
terity will receive a holier estimation than the revenues of 
the public purse. Some day the voice of the mother will 
be triumphant in the vote of her son; the sobriety, honor, 
prosperity of the son be made secure by the suffrage of the 
sire. The State will wash her soiled and blood-stained robes 
in the confluent streams of Christianity and civilization, and 
walk unchallenged the highways of national power and 
national glory. 

WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE? 

I look abroad over our beautiful land, battle-spread with 
the white banners of this holy crusade. I believe ' ' now is 
our salvation nearer than when we believed." The day- 
spring of deliverance stretches from Maine to Mt. Hood; 
the aurora lights of the Dakota prairies and the New Hamp- 



OF THE WORLD. 349 

shire hills lean over to kiss the crest of the uplifted South- 
ern Cross. A few more years and a few more tears, but the 
healing of the nation is preparing in the crucibles of Christ. 
In due season we shall be made His purveyors of the benef- 
icent balm. As Jason boldly turned the prow of his Argos 
into the teeth of the angry billows to retrieve the Golden 
Fleece, so we launch the good ship Prohibition upon the 
turbulent tides of our national life. She is freighted with 
prayers and hopes, with sorrows and sacrifices, with faith 
and loyalty. We crowd her decks with Christian confidence; 
and so, seeing the end mirrored in the eternal, unfailing 
promises of His Word , we 

" Nail to the mast her holy flag, 
Set all her tear-bleached sails, 
And give her to the God of Love, 
And to His prospering gales." 



CHAPTER XVI. 
DURING AND AFTER THE WAR. 

\ X 7ITH tlie year i860 began a marked reversal of the 
* * temperance reform movement. Up to that date its 
motto had been "Forward." For thirty-four years there 
had been a steady and rapid progress, comprising the various 
stages of development described in the preceding chapters, 
and advancing from the mildest form of moral suasion to a 
rigid prohibition. But a reversal now set in : the first chap- 
ter in the history of temperance reform ended, while the 
second chapter was not yet ready to begin. During the 
terrible civil war which broke out in the year mentioned 
the temperance cause greatly declined. The people were 
in too high a state of excitement, the officers of the law too 
much engaged with other interests, to render it easy to en- 
force restrictive temperance laws. The membership of the 
various societies seriously fell off, prohibition in great meas- 
ure ceased to prohibit, and drunkenness became more of a 
national vice than it had been for many years. 

Yet propagandism to some extent continued, and efforts 
were made to promote temperance in the army, with, as 
must be acknowledged, very little effect. That soldiers 
will drink if liquor is to be had, and that they will make 
extraordinary efforts to obtain it, need scarcely be said. 
There are a wildness and a license in their life that create a 
tendency to indulgence in stimulants, and that render them 
350 



OF THE WORLD. 35 I 

obtuse to the arguments and influences which govern people 
in times of peace. Liquor was forthcoming, with little stint, 
to the soldiers of both armies, and it is unquestionable that the 
war made drunkards of multitudes and greatly reduced the 
strength of the temperance cause throughout the country. 

Numerous anecdotes might be told of the devices of 
liquor-loving soldiers to obtain the much-desired stimulant 
and of their disregard of the property rights of dramsellers. 
One of these is as much as we have space to give. Whiskey- 
dealers with their stock of liquid fire occasionally found 
their way to the vicinity of the camps, and drove a thriv- 
ing trade with the soldiers. The story is told that one per- 
sonage in this line of business had set up his liquor-cask in 
a tent, with one end bulging out the canvas and the other 
facing the entrance. 

The topers of the camp quickly discovered this opportu- 
nity to ' ' wet their whistles, ' ' and for some time the enter- 
prising merchant drove a profitable trade at paying prices. 
After a time, however, he found that his business was falling 
off, with no evident reason for it. The whole camp was not 
yet drunk, and he could not conceive that anything less, 
should deprive him of his customers. 

" You are too high in your prices," remarked one of the 
latter. "There is a chap outside here selling whiskey at 
half your rates, and he has run away with your trade." 

The rumseller, out of temper at such unfair competition, 
went outside, and found that he had been told the truth. 
A soldier had set up opposition, and was retailing liquor at 
less than wholesale price. Puzzled at first to understand this 
operation, the dealer began an investigation, which quickly- 
made clear the mystery. The shrewd outsider had cut a 
slit in the wall of the tent where the cask bulged against 
it, bored a hole in that end of the dealer's cask, and was 
stealing whiskey out of his own barrel to sell to his own 



352 THE WHITE ANGEL 

customers. It was an instance of business competition 
which the sharpest of our modern merchants would find it 
hard to beat. 

There were many noble examples of temperance as well 
among the men as the officers. Among the most nota- 
ble of the latter may be named Admiral Farragut, who set 
an admirable example to his men and sternly cut off the 
grog-ration in his ships. It is said of him that on the 
night before the battle of Mobile he was approached by 
one of his officers, who said: 

' ' Admiral, won' t you consent to give Jack a glass of 
grog in the morning — not enough to make him drunk, but 
enough to make him fight cheerfully?" 

' ' Well, ' ' answered the veteran, ' ' I have been to sea con- 
siderably, and have seen a battle or two, but I never found 
that I wanted rum to enable me to do my duty. I will 
order two cups of coffee to each man at two o'clock, and at 
eight o'clock I will pipe all hands to breakfast in Mobile 
Bay." • 

And the fleet went into battle with its brave admiral at 
the masthead, and won a glorious victory, while there is 
nothing to show that Jack did not fight as well on coffee as 
he could possibly have done on grog. 

The case of Admiral Farragut, which we have cited as an 
illustrious example of temperance on the Northern side dur- 
ing the Civil War, may properly be matched with as illustri- 
ous an example on the Southern side — that of General I^ee. 
We are told of him that "throughout his whole life he never 
used tobacco, and, though in rare cases he would drink a 
glass of wine, he strictly avoided whiskey or brandy, and 
did his utmost to favor temperance in others. The intem- 
perate habits of many of the persons under his command 
were always a source of pain to him, and several anecdotes 
are told of his quiet manner of administering reproof to 



OF THE WORLD. 



353 



young men who had over-indulged in strong liquor. In- 
deed, on more than one occasion he refused to promote offi- 
cers addicted to intoxication, saying, ' I cannot consent to 
place in the control of others one who cannot control him- 
self.' " 

General Long, in his Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, from 
which the above quotation is made, gives several anecdotes 
bearing upon his hero's abstemious habits. One or two of 
these may be quoted: 

" General Lee usually maintained a cheerful mien toward 




General Lee and the Buttermilk. 

his staff, and at times indulged his humor for a practical 
joke in a manner which would have surprised an outsider 
who saw only the grave and dignified side of his character. 

23 



354 THE WHITE ANGEL 

On one occasion a demijohn was observed to be carried into 
his tent, which excited in the minds of those who beheld it 
visions of good wine or brandy. About twelve o'clock he 
walked out of his tent, and with a twinkle in his eye re- 
marked, * Perhaps you gentlemen would like a glass of 
something ? ' All assenting, he directed Bryan, the steward 
of the mess, to carry the demijohn to the mess-tent and 
arrange cups for the gentlemen. They followed him with 
pleasant anticipations of the unexpected treat. The general 
ordered the cork to be drawn and the cups filled. The dis- 
appointment of the expectants and Lee's enjoyment may be 
better imagined than described when the contents proved to 
be buttermilk!". 

Lee seems to have been particularly fond of this mild 
beverage, and on more than one occasion invited an officer 
to drink a glass of buttermilk with him — not a very attract- 
ive invitation to the average army officer. 

J. W. Jones's Personal Reminiscences of General Lee is 
warrant for the following anecdote of the Confederate com- 
mander: 

' ' While at winter-quarters at Petersburg a party of offi- 
cers were one night busily engaged in discussing at the 
same time a mathematical problem and the contents of a 
stone jug which was garnished by two tin cups. In the 
midst of this General Lee came in to make some inquiry. 
He got the information he wanted, gave a solution of the 
problem, and went out, the officers expressing to each other 
the hope that the general had not noticed the jug and cups. 
The next day one of the officers in the presence of the others 
was relating to General Lee a very strange dream he had the 
night before. The general listened with apparent interest 
to the narrative, and quietly rejoined, ' That is not at all 
remarkable. When young gentlemen discuss at midnight 
mathematical problems the unknown quantities of which 



OF THE WORLD. 355 

are a stone jug and two tin cups, they may expect to have 
strange dreams.' " 

These humors of the army may be concluded with a story 
told by one of Napoleon's old soldiers at a temperance meet- 
ing in Alabama. It is strikingly corroborative of the gen- 
eral scientific verdict as to the comparative effects of drunken- 
ness and sobriety on the health. Colonel L,ahmanousky, the 
veteran in question, had served twenty-three years under 
Napoleon. He stood before the audience tall, erect, and 
vigorous, with the glow of health in his face, and said: 

i 'You see before you a man seventy-nine years old. I 
have fought in two hundred battles, have fourteen wounds 
on my body, have lived thirty days on horse-flesh, with the 
bark of trees for my bread, snow and ice for my drink, the 
canopy of heaven for my covering, and only a few rags for 
my clothing. In the deserts of Egypt I have marched for 
days with a burning sun upon my naked head, feet blistered 
in the scorching sand, and with eyes, mouth, and nostrils 
filled with dust, and with a thirst so tormenting that I have 
torn open the veins of my arm and sucked my own blood! 
Do you ask how I could survive all these horrors ? I answer 
that, next to the kind providence of God, I owe my preser- 
vation, my health, and my vigor to this fact: that I never 
drank a drop of spirituous liquor in my life." 

He continued : ' * Baron L,arrey, chief of the medical staff 
of the French army, has stated it as a fact that the six thou- 
sand survivors who safely returned from Egypt were all men 
who abstained from the use of ardent spirits. ' ' 

The history of temperance during the war, as may be 
imagined from what we have said, was rather a history of 
intemperance. With the termination of the conflict the 
United States entered upon a new era of its history, which 
was marked in its beginning by a great increase in the 
liquor-drinking habits of the people. The course of tern- 



356 THE WHITE ANGEL 

perance reform had swung decidedly downward, drinking 
had become far more general, and the armies poured out 
upon the country a host of imbibers who had been taught 
the ugly art as a part of the lessons of war. 

In the recent history of temperance in America the rever- 
sal of this demoralizing influence of the war has been one 
of the main labors which temperance advocates have had to 
perform. But it has not been the only or the greatest one; 
for they have had to deal also with a rapid increase of popu- 
lation, not through birth, but through immigration — a steady 
inflow of hard drinkers from Europe, whose habits and desires 
have almost negatived all reform efforts and given to the 
liquor cause an increasing host of ready-made adherents. 

It is an unfortunate circumstance for America that Europe 
stands, in this particular, at a distinctively lower level of 
moral advancement. If we had but our own people to deal 
with, the education of children into habits of temperance 
might, in a comparatively short time, in great measure, 
eradicate the evil of drunkenness from every part of the 
land. 

This is an undesirable and unfair condition of affairs. 
Europe should be forced to do her own reforming, and not 
be permitted to make America a waste-heap in which to 
cast her Nihilists, her paupers, and her drunkards. Honest, 
capable immigrants are welcome here. We have still room 
for millions of this class. But the steps that have recently 
been taken to weed out the ranks of immigrants should, if 
the temperance cause is to have a fair opportunity, be fur- 
ther extended. Chinamen are now strictly forbidden to 
land upon our shores. A similar measure has recently been 
adopted in regard to the paupers of the Old World. It can 
scarcely be many years ere America will effectively close its 
gates to the dynamiters and advocates of murder and outrage 
from Europe. Will the time ever come in which a fourth 



OF THE WORLD. 357 

ukase shall be issued, declaring that Europe shall no longer 
unload her drunkards upon our shores ? For such a desir- 
able consummation we can scarcely hope, as it is rather the 
instilled habit of drinking than decided inebriety with which 
we have to deal. Many of our worst drunkards came here 
as the moderate drinkers of Europe. The only hope that re- 
mains is that Europe will generally accept from America the 
principle of temperance reform, and herself educate into 
habits of sobriety the tribute in men which she will prob- 
ably long continue to pay to our land. 

THE CATHOLIC TOTAL-ABSTINENCE SOCIETY. 

With the first year of the war began a movement which 
has been of high importance to America, as reaching a class 
of drinkers who were not easily to be influenced by the or- 
dinary methods of propagandism. The work done by Father 
Mathew in America had left but few results at the era in 
question. The societies organized by him in Ireland and 
America had one by one disbanded, until in i860 only some 
twelve of these societies remained. How to renew the van- 
ished influence of the noble apostle of temperance was a 
question not easily to be settled. But it was evident enough 
that any action likely to be successful must come from within 
the Church. The Roman Catholic denomination is a body 
greatly impervious to influences from without, but remark- 
ably open to influences from within. If it was to be brought 
inside the fold of temperance, this must be achieved by a 
movement emanating from within — an organized effort of 
the priesthood. 

In i860 a young priest, the Rev. Patrick Byrne of Tren- 
ton, N. J., became thoroughly aroused to the growing in- 
roads of intemperance among his parishioners, and asked 
permission of his superior to endeavor to form a religious 
total-abstinence society. Permission was given, and the 



35$ THE WHITE ANGEL 

" Parochial Total- Abstinence Society" arose. Mr. Byrne 
founded similar societies in other parishes to which he suc- 
cessively removed. As the system spread the Church took 
it in hand, and during the succeeding ten years the new 
idea became well grounded in the Catholic congregations, it 
being generally approved of and fostered by the priesthood. 

Mr. Byrne says, speaking of the early difficulties which 
he encountered: "I felt from the first the frightful nature of 
this vice, and I determined to combat it to the last limit 
allowed me by the Church. ' ' He perceived, however, that an 
occasional sermon was of little utility, and began to estab- 
lish societies; " but when I reached this point I found my- 
self opposed by many of my brethren far above me in learn- 
ing, zeal, and piety. They thought that the ordinary means 
were sufficient to meet this as all other vices. But as for 
me, I never could see the propriety of this view. As the 
mission awakens a habitual sinner, who, dead to grace and 
devotion, never hears the voice of his pastor, so also the 
total-abstinence society becomes the means of recalling 
many an unfortunate to the paths of sobriety and recti- 
tude." 

The c ' missions ' ' spoken of by Mr. Byrne correspond to 
the "revivals" of the Protestant churches. They are con- 
ducted by several orders of the priesthood, as the Jesuits, 
Passionists, and Paulists. From 1867 to 1869 these revi- 
valists accompanied their mission exercises with the forma- 
tion of total-abstinence societies in the various parishes. By 
1870 the societies thus formed had grown so numerous that 
they began to organize into "unions " in the various cities 
and States. The Most Reverend J. R. Bayley, bishop of 
Newark, made a stirring temperance speech, of which a 
hundred thousand copies were distributed among the Cath- 
olic congregations. Its effect was of the highest importance. 
Priests and people were everywhere roused up to the work. 



OF THE WORLD. 359 

and within six months' time more societies were organized 
than there had been during the twenty years preceding. 

In 1872 the societies of the various* States sent delegates 
to a convention which met at Baltimore on the 22d of Feb- 
ruary, adopted a constitution, and organized a National 
Union entitled the " Catholic Total-Abstinence Union of 
America. ' ' The Rev. James McDevitt of Washington was 
elected the first president. Among the resolutions adopted 
was one which declared it inexpedient for the convention to 
take part in efforts for prohibitory legislation, but strongly 
favoring restrictive measures. 

This movement received essential support from the lec- 
tures of the Rev. Tom Burke of Ireland, whose addresses 
on Irish history against Mr. Fronde had already given him 
a high reputation. His powerful temperance speeches were 
sent abroad as tracts, and did great good among the mem- 
bers of his Church. Annual conventions were held, the 
Rev. Patrick Byrne, the original instigator of the move- 
ment, being elected president in 1873. ^ e continued in 
office until 1877. 

The most notable public performance of the society was 
the erection of the Centennial Total-Abstinence Fountain 
in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, in 1876. This handsome 
work of art cost $54,000, all but $10,000 of which was raised 
by the Philadelphia societies. It remains as one of the few 
relics of the Centennial that have a permanent existence — 
the noblest work of art yet dedicated to total abstinence. 

The Roman Catholic bishops throughout the country soon 
began to give the movement their approval, warmly-favoring 
letters being read from thirty of them at the Chicago con- 
vention of 1874. The support which this gave the cause 
was greatly added to by the advent of Bishop Ireland of 
Minnesota as a total-abstinence speaker. Since that period 
he has been an active advocate of temperance in the pulpit 



360 THE WHITE ANGEL 

and on the rostrum, and has exerted a most important in- 
fluence upon the Catholic population. 

Yet various causes, among them the financial difficulties 
which began in 1873, checked the growth of the Union, 
so that by 1881 it had declined from its 600 societies and 
150,000 members of 1876 to 524 societies and 26,000 mem- 
bers. A revival of interest then set in through active 
measures of propagandism. In 1882 the membership had 
increased to 34,300; in 1886 there were 651 societies, with 
43,953 members; and in August, 1887, over 50,000 mem- 
bers. 

In 1884 the archbishops and bishops of the United States 
issued a pastoral letter calling upon all pastors to strongly 
advise such of their flocks as might be engaged in the 
liquor-selling business u to abandon the dangerous traffic 
and to make their living in a more becoming way." 

In 1878 a society entitled "The Sodality of the League 
of the Cross for the Suppression of Drunkenness" was 
organized in St. Lawrence's Church, New York. This 
was sanctioned by the Pope in 1879, and many similar 
societies have since been formed. It offers its members 
the choice of two pledges — a total and a partial abstinence 
one. Men who take the pledge of partial abstinence bind 
themselves not to drink in any twenty-four hours more 
than " three glasses of porter, ale, beer of any kind or 
cider, or three wine-glasses of wine, or two wine-glasses 
of brandy, whiskey, gin, or rum ; and not to drink this in 
bar-rooms, saloons, beer-gardens, or such like places, or at 
picnics or excursions." Women are restricted to a smaller 
quantity. * ' Those who take the partial pledge may at any 
time change it for the total, but those who take the total 
must keep it for at least a year before they may change it 
for the partial." 

This abstinence movement among the Roman Catholic 



OF THE WORLD. 361 

population has not made the progress that might naturally 
have been expected since its adoption by the priesthood 
twenty-seven years ago. Yet it has done excellent work, 
as well among the young as among adults, and has before 
it a future of excellent promise. Thoroughly organized, 
fully approved by the Pope, and fostered by a growing 
interest among the Catholic clergy, the belief of John H. 
Campbell, recently president of the Philadelphia Union, 
that the Catholic Total-Abstinence Union of America is 
"prepared to enter upon such a total-abstinence crusade as 
will place Catholics in the very advance of the temperance 
movement in America, " seems not without warrant. Let 
us earnestly hope that it may be realized. 

THE CITIZENS' LAW-AND-ORDER LEAGUE. 

In 1877 the fact was observed by Frederick F. Elmendorf 
and Andrew Paxton, temperance-men of Chicago, that dur- 
ing the extensive railway riots of that year a large propor- 
tion of the rioters were half-drunken boys. These persons 
then entered upon a course of systematic observations, and 
soon perceived that an army of such boys, estimated at 
thirty thousand, patronized habitually the Chicago saloons, 
and were fast being converted into ' c drunkards, vagrants, 
paupers, lunatics, and criminals." They at once directed 
public attention to this evil state of affairs, called a meet- 
ing of reputable citizens, and succeeded on November 25, 
1877, in organizing "The Citizens' League of Chicago for 
the Suppression of the Sale of Liquor to Minors." 

The operations of the new society were simple but effec- 
tive. "Mr. Elmendorf was elected president, and Mr. 
Paxton appointed prosecuting agent. The president raised 
the funds; the agent prosecuted the cases. Mr. Paxton, 
and sometimes others, visited the dramshopS in a regular 
order, and whenever a minor was found drinking in a 



.362 THE WHITE ANGEL 

saloon a complaint was made before a magistrate and a 
prosecution instituted. Obstacles were encountered, but 
they were speedily overcome, and soon the penalty of fine 
or imprisonment followed the complaints so swiftly that the 
then three thousand liquor-saloons of Chicago practically 
surrendered, and have ever since acknowledged the power 
of the Citizens' League. It is believed that fully five-sixths 
of the sale of liquor to minors has been effectually sup- 
pressed. ' ' * 

The success of this new movement caused it to rapidly 
spread. Similar societies to that of Chicago were organ- 
ized elsewhere, and on February 22, 1883, a national organ- 
ization was formed in Tremont Temple, Boston, composed 
of delegates from eight States. It was entitled " The Citi- 
zens' Law-and-Order League of the United States." The 
growth of local societies has been remarkably rapid. At 
the second annual convention, held in 1884, it was stated 
by the secretary that there were at that date probably five 
hundred Law-and-Order Leagues in the United States, with 
a membership of at least sixty thousand. 

Washington's birthday has been adopted as the annual 
* i Law-and-Order " day. Any citizen is competent to found 
a society in his vicinity. He needs but obtain from the secre- 
tary, L. Edwin Dudley of Boston, the forms of constitution 
and by-laws and to gain the assent of a few of his fellow-citi- 
zens to organize a league. The work of the league requires 
only a prosecuting agent and funds to defray expenses. 

"The Law-and-Order Leagues deal with the laws as they 
are, and seek their enforcement, whether they provide for 

license, local option, or prohibition It is not the 

province of the Law-and-Order Leagues to discuss the pro- 
priety or impropriety of laws, except so far as such discus- 
sion may bear'upon the question of their enforcement 

* Charles C. Bonney : One Hundred Years of Temperance. 



364 THE WHITE ANGEL 

All other classes are required to yield obedience to the re- 
quirements of the law-making power, and the last persons 
who should ask to be made an exception to this rule are the 
saloon-keepers and liquor-dealers. " 

As to the work achieved by this society, it will suffice to 
quote from the report of the board of directors of the 
Chicago League of January 13, 1883: 

' ' During the past five years three hundred saloons have 
been closed ; twenty-five thousand of our youths have been 
kept out of saloons; sixteen hundred saloon-keepers have 
been arrested; three thousand homes have been visited; 
crime among minors has decreased ; the League has exerted 
a law-and-order influence equal to that of seventy-five police- 
men; it has saved in police and criminal law expenses five 
hundred thousand dollars; and has diverted from the tills 
of the saloon-keepers to the tills of the butchers, bakers, 
clothiers, and others two millions of dollars. " 

A remarkable showing for the work in one city! The 
total good effect in the United States must have been of the 
greatest importance and value. 

As to the importance of guarding the period of incipient 
manhood from the insidious advances of the wine-cup we 
have the following apposite anecdote of Admiral Farragut. 
The story is told that when young Farragut was about ten 
years of age his father remarked in his presence that he had 
a compact to make with him as soon as he was old enough 
to be sure he could keep it. The son demanded to know 
what the compact was. 

"The proposal I intend to make is this," said the admiral. 
" If you will not smoke or chew tobacco, drink intoxicating 
drinks or strong wines, till you are twenty-one years of age, 
I will give you one thousand dollars. ' ' 

"I am old enough to make that bargain now," declared 
the boy. " I accept the offer." 



OF THE WORLD. 365 

He kept strictly to his bargain, and on attaining his 
twenty-first year received the promised reward. Never was 
money more wisely spent. The shrewd admiral knew well 
the dangers that surround the period between young boy- 
hood and manhood, and was anxious safely to tide his son 
over that perilous reach of life. 

In the same connection, though with a different moral, is 
the following story: A keen-witted farmer at the period 
when the temperance reform was yet new to the country 
said to a man he had engaged to work on his farm, 

" Jonathan, I forgot to mention to you when I hired 
you that I think of trying to do my work this year with- 
out rum. How much more shall I give you in place of 
your liquor?" 

"Oh," said Jonathan, "I don't care much about it; you 
may give me what you please. ' ' 

"Very well; I will give you a sheep in the fall if you do 
without rum. ' ' 

' ' Agreed, ' ' said Jonathan. 

"Father," said the oldest son, who had overheard this 
conversation, ' ' will you give me a sheep too if I do with- 
out?" 

" Yes, you shall have a sheep too." 

"And me?" asked the youngest son; " are you not going 
to give me a sheep ? ' ' 

1 ' Yes, my son, if you will promise not to touch rum you 
shall have a sheep also. ' ' 

The boy stood for a moment in a meditative attitude, and 
then looked up meaningly: 

"Father, hadn't you better take a sheep too ? " 

This was decidedly "carrying the war into Denmark." 
The farmer had not thought of himself giving up the 
"good creature of God." Yet the situation was a critical 
one, and the suggestion so aptly put that he could not well 



366 



THE WHITE Ah GEL 



refuse; and the result was that rum was banished from that 

household, much to the benefit and happiness of all persons 

concerned. 

An extract from the New York Herald shows in startling 

colors the part which parents often take in making drunk- 
ards of their children, and the 
necessity of a strict and earnest 
home supervision. It is one of 
the ' ' about- town ' ' experiences 
of a reporter: 

( ' Now, you watch those chil- 




Sipping Children 



dren. They'll drink half that beer before they get home, and 
their mother will scold me for not giving a good pint, and 
I've given nearly a quart," said the bartender of a down- 



OF THE WORLD. 36? 

town saloon the other day, referring to two little girls of six 
and eight, thinly clad, who came in for a pint of beer. The 
reporter did watch the young ones. They had scarcely got 
outside of the saloon door when the one that carried the tin 
pail lifted it to her lips and took a draught. Then her 
companion enjoyed a few swallows. A little farther on they 
entered a tenement-house hallway, and both again took a sip. 
1 I have lots of such customers,' said the bartender when the 
reporter returned tcthe saloon to light his cigar. * Girls and 
boys and women form half our trade. We call it family trade. 
It pays our expenses. Our profits come from the drinkers at 
the bar. But I tell you what: half the children who come 
here drink. That's how drunkards are made. Their mothers 
and fathers send 'em for beer. They see the old folks tipple, 
and begin to taste the beer themselves. Few of the children 
who come in here for beer or ale carry a full pint home. 
Sometimes two or three come in together, and if you watch 
'em you'll hear one begging the one who carries the pail for 
a sip. We must sell it, however, when their parents send for 
it. We are bound to do so. Business is business. We don't 
keep a temperance shop.' " 

Evidently, not only Law-and-Order Leagues are necessary, 
but also an extension of the laws regarding sale to minors 
to cover such dangerous cases as this. 

THE BUSINESS-MEN'S MODERATION SOCIETY. 

An anecdote or two as to the insidious approaches of the 
alcohol habit will fitly close this chapter. The story is told 
of a shrewd American judge that, being seriously afflicted 
with "chills and fever," he was advised by his doctor to 
try the effect of a regular "morning dram." 

He did so, having no fears of the result. Yet the glass of 
liquor grew imperceptibly more palatable every morning.. 



$68 THE WHITE ANGEL 

One morning he sprang out of bed and began dressing with 
nervous haste, though there was no evident reason for it. 

1 ' Why am I in such a hurry ? " he asked himself on noti- 
cing his unusual eagerness in dressing. 

There was no urgent business. What ailed him ? A mo- 
ment' s thought solved the problem: 

" It is simply to get my dram. It is becoming my master. 
But I will not be its slave. From this moment forward I 
will not touch it." 

He left the room, but said nothing of his resolution to his 
wife. At breakfast she remarked to him, 

1 ' You have forgotten your drink this morning. ' ' 

" No, I have not," he replied. " But did you not observe 
my haste to dress this morning? It was the thirst for the 
dram that ailed me. I saw that it was about to become my 
master, and I made up my mind on the spot never to touch 
it again. ' ' 

If all men with the same growing desire would display a 
similar resolution there would be fewer drunkards in the 
world. 

A very similar story is told of a gentleman who, during 
the prevalence of cholera in Cincinnati, deviated frdm his 
total-abstinence principles as a medical precaution, and 
asked his wife to put a tablespoonful of brandy in his 
glass of water every day at dinner. The wife did so, 
deeming it the result of medical advice, and the husband 
drank the highly-diluted dram. After a week of this 
regimen he said to his wife, 

4 ' My dear, you have been cutting off my supply of 
brandy. This has lost its taste; it does not produce the 
same effect as at first." 

She declared that she had given him the full measure. 
Another week passed, when he again accused her of redu- 
cing his dose. Its effects had ceased to be perceptible. 



OF THE WORLD. 



3^9 



% ' My dear, ' ' said his wife, ( ' you have been taking two 
tablespoonfuls every day for a week past, since you accused 
me of stinting you." 

His surprise at this information became almost consterna- 




Flinging away the Decanter. 



tion. He sat for several minutes in deep thought, and then 

asked her to bring him the decanter of brandy. 

Grasping it, he shook it with firm hand and set his teeth, 

•as if to say, "I am your master," and then hurled it from 
1\ 



370 THE WHITE ANGEL 

the window. He had discovered in time the dangers flow- 
ing from the daily dram. 

Such, indeed, as the lesson of all ages teaches us, is the 
manner in which daily indulgence in stimulating draughts 
increases the desire for such dangerous doses and impairs the 
resolution which should guard us against them. A man 
may pass by imperceptible steps from sobriety to drunken- 
ness, and find himself a slave to the fatal dram before he 
recognizes what a terrible hold it has fixed upon him. In 
this respect a daily moderate drink may be much worse than 
occasional intoxication with intervals of abstinence. The 
former is far more likely than the latter to render the 
whiskey- or wine-bottle one of the absolute necessaries of 
life. 

Dr. Jewett tells a story which fits in neatly with the quo- 
tation taken from Mr. Locke's article. We give it here as 
an addendum to that quotation. 

"I stopped at a hotel," said the doctor, "where I saw 
Joe and' Bill in the bar-room. The parties were sitting very 
close together, and at the opening of the colloquy Bill 
brought his big dirty hand down pretty smartly upon Joe's 
knee to render him wide awake to the importance of the 
question he was about to ask. 

" 'See here, Joe,' said Bill, 'how much money (hie) do 
you reckon you and I have spent in this old place, first and 
last?' 

" 'Well, I dunno,' replied Joe. 

" 'Nor I, nuther, exactly,' continued Bill; 'but I reckon 
we've (hie) spent in this old place, first and last, drinkin' 
and treatin' and sich-like, as much as six hundred dollar sS 

" 'Well, I guess we have,' responded Joe. 

" 'Well, I guess we have, too,' said Bill. ' But what of 
that? Let her go! Who cares? It's gone, and we can't 
get it back again; but we've had some pretty good times 



OF THE WORLD. 37 1 

while it (hie) was goin', didn't we? and made a good many 
friends in that way, drinkin' and treatin' and sich-like. ' 

" 'Yes, that's sartain, and no mistake,' replied Joe. 

"'Now, Joe,' continued Bill, 'I'll tell you what I'm 
thinkin' of. If, now, we could sell all the friends we've 
made in that way, drinkin' and treatin' and sich-like, for 
one-half what they cost us, shouldn't we make a specu- 
lation ?' 

"Joe indorsed the opinion, and had a loud laugh over it; 
and thus the discussion ended. 

"'That fellow's head is level,' thought I, 'if he is 
drunk. "' 



CHAPTER XVII. 

WOMAN'S ENTRANCE UPON THE ARENA 

T N the preceding chapters we have given several instances 
-*- of what may be called emotional temperance reform — 
revival occasions of immense immediate* influence, but 
unfortunately of little decisive permanent effect. Yet 
none of these have died without leaving some mark upon 
the world: the Father Mathew crusade, the Washingtonian 
outburst, the Cold- Water Army movement, and the other 
efforts of enthusiasm have lifted the cause of temperance to 
a height it might not have attained without them, and 
served as the originating causes of many of the present 
temperance organizations and conditions. 

During recent years other such emotional or revival influ- 
ences have been brought to bear upon the cause, and, though 
their immediate effects have died away, their final results 
continue of the highest utility. The first and most striking 
of these, that known as the " Woman's Crusade," dates 
from the month of December, 1873. 

At that date Dr. Dio Lewis, the well-known advocate of 
hygienic training, delivered a lecture at Hillsboro', Ohio. 
In the course of it he spoke freely of his own family his- 
tory. His father had been a drunkard, and his pious moth- 
er, forty years before, wearied with the struggle to feed, 
clothe, and educate her five helpless children, was roused to 
a radical resolution. Gathering several other women whose 
372 



OF THE WORLD. 7>73 

history resembled her own, she led them to the tavern where 
their husbands obtained their liquor, and, kneeling down in 
the bar-room, prayed fervently for the liquor-seller, and be- 
sought him to abandon a business that was ruining himself 
and all those around him. Their prayers and entreaties 
prevailed and the conscience-stricken dealer agreed to give 
up his disreputable and soul-destroying trade. 

After telling this story Dr. L,ewis suggested that similar 
work might yet be performed, and asked all the women who 
were willing to follow the example of his mother to rise. In 
response nearly the whole audience rose. It was at once de- 
cided to hold a meeting upon the subject the next morning 
in the Presbyterian church. 

The meeting was held, the mode of action decided upon, 
and to the words of the following hymn, 

" Give to the winds thy fears ; 
Hope, and be undismayed ; 
God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears ; 
He will lift up thy head," 

the women (seventy-five in number) fell into line, two by 
two, and marched through the town, proceeding first to the 
drug-stores and then to the hotels and saloons. 

Kneeling upon the floors of these liquor-selling places, 
heedless of the rough treatment and abusive language with 
which some of the dealers received them, the devoted band 
of Crusaders earnestly prayed, and as earnestly implored the 
proprietors to abandon their unholy business. For over six 
months this programme was repeated almost day by day in 
Hillsboro'. 

In a few days five of the saloons and three of the drug- 
stores surrendered. The remainder were more obdurate, 
and one obstinate druggist sued the praying band for injury 
to his business, laying his damages at ten thousand dollars. 
He lost his suit, however, and the work went bravely on. 



374 THE WHITE ANGEL 

The story of what had been done at Hillsboro' spread 
rapidly through the State, and the idea was welcomed with 
enthusiasm by thousands of long-suffering women. Within 
two days of its origin a similar movement was inaugurated 
at Washington, a neighboring town. Here the first victory of 
the Crusaders was gained. On Monday, December 29th, oc- 
curred the earliest surrender to the praying band, a liquor- 
dealer yielding his whole stock to be poured into the street. 

1 c Nearly a thousand men, women, and children witnessed 
the mingling of beer, ale, wine, and whiskey as they filled 
the gutters and were drunk up by the earth, while bells were 
ringing, men and boys shouting, and women singing and 
praying to God who had given the victory. 

u On the fourth day the campaign reached its height: the 
town being filled with visitors from all parts of the country 
and adjoining villages, another public surrender and another 
pouring into the street of a larger stock of liquors than on 
the day before, and more intense excitement and enthusiasm. 
In eight' days all the saloons, eleven in number, had been 
closed, and the three drug-stores pledged to sell only on 
prescription. ' ' 

Mrs. Ustick, from whom we make the foregoing quota- 
tion, proceeds to relate that three weeks afterward a new 
man took out a license to sell in one of the deserted saloons, 
being backed up by a whiskey-house in Cincinnati to the 
amount of five thousand dollars. The purpose was to en- 
deavor to break down the movement. About forty women 
at once began to pray in the saloon, in which they were 
locked by the proprietor for two hours of a bitterly cold day 
without fire or chairs. On the next day, the coldest of the 
winter of 1874, they were locked out, and kept up religious 
services all day in the street, warmed by the fire of resolu- 
tion as they knelt in the chilling snow. 

On the succeeding day a tabernacle was built in the street 



OF THE WORLD. 375 

before the house, and the women assembled there for the 
purpose of watching and praying; but before night the 
sheriff closed the saloon and the proprietor surrendered. 
Shortly afterward this person, on his dying bed, sent for 
some of the women and asked them to pray for him, say- 
ing that their songs and prayers had never ceased to ring in 
his ears. 

Mrs. E. J. Thompson, the leader of the first praying band 
in Hillsboro', thus describes the scene of a surrender: "Dur- 
ing the crusade a saloon-keeper consented to close his busi- 
ness. There was a good deal of enthusiasm and interest, 
and we women decided to compensate the man for his whis- 
key and make a bonfire of it in the street. A great crowd 
gathered about the saloon, and the barrels of whiskey were 
rolled out to the public square, where we were to have our 
bonfire. Myself and two other little women who had been 
chosen to knock in the heads, and had come to the place 
with axes concealed under our shawls, went to our work 
with a will. I didn't know I was so strong, but I lifted that 
axe like a woodman, and brought it down with such force 
that the first blow stove in the head of a barrel and splashed 
the whiskey in every direction. I was literally baptized 
with the noxious stuff. The intention was to set it on fire, 
and we had brought matches for that purpose, but it would 
not burn. It was a villanous compound of some sort, but 
we had set out to have a fire, and were determined by some 
means or other to make it burn ; so we sent for some coal- 
oil and poured it on, and we soon had a blaze. The man 
who could sell such liquors would not be likely to keep the 
pledge. He is selling liquor again. ' ' 

Another story, told by Dr. Lewis, who continued a lead- 
ing spirit in the movement which he had instigated, is the 
following; it relates to the town of Washington: 

"Just out of town was one Charley Beck, a German, who 



376 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



kept a fine lager-beer garden, and the women determined to 
visit him. He was in the confidence of some wholesale 
liquor-dealers in Cincinnati, who told him they would give 
him all the liquor he could sell in a year if he would break 
down the crusade. 

"When he was visited he said, with much impressive- 




The Crusaders' Triumph. 



ness, 'Go 'vay, vimmins, go home; shtay at home and tend 
to your papies; what for you wants to come to my peer- 
garten? Dis is the blace to trink peer; ve don't vant no 
brayer-meetings in dis garten.' However, the women quietly 
led a prayer-meeting on his behalf, which, greatly to his sur- 
prise, was not such a shocking, howling, fanatical utterance, 



OF THE WORLD. 377 

but a supplication of the throne of divine grace in his be- 
half, and in a low and gentle manner, as a mother might 
pray, with her children around her, at the family altar. 

' ' Recognizing this as the last stronghold of the enemy, a 
tent was pitched in front of the entrance to the beer-garden, 
and on it was placed a locomotive headlight which threw its- 
glare full upon the Dutchman's door. The women relieved 
each other every four hours from six o' clock in the morning 
until midnight, singing and praying, reading the Scriptures, 
and keeping account of the persons who went into Charley 
Beck's garden, for three weeks; by which time his business 
was effectually stopped, and poor Beck, seeing that the hope 
of his gains was gone, came mournfully over to the prayer- 
tabernacle, and said, ' Oh, vimmins ! I quits ! I quits !' " 

The crusading movement, thus began, spread from town 
to town with extraordinary rapidity, the enthusiasm of the 
temperance church-women being everywhere aroused. In 
town after town praying bands were organized and visited 
the saloons. Much opposition was, of course, met with, but 
for a time the movement was almost irresistible, and in. 
many of the smaller towns the liquor-traffic entirely ceased. 
In the larger cities, however, the business was too strongly 
organized to be readily overcome, and, despite the utmost 
efforts of the crusading bands, their campaign ended in 
failure. 

Some description of the various difficulties with which 
they had to contend and the outrages to which they were 
exposed may be of interest. 

In an establishment kept by one Klein they were first 
assailed by Mrs. Klein, who rushed in like a virago in a fury 
of rage, abusing them in all the vile language for which she 
could find words. She was followed by Klein himself, who 
ran into the room brandishing a little parcel and yelling in 
fury, "Git out o' mine house immejutly, you hypocrites I 



37% 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



Do you see dat baper? Dat's red pepper in dere, and I 
gives you shust five minutes to leave mine shop; if you 
don't, I trow dis over you." They did not leave, however, 
and the pepper was not thrown. 




Klein and the Crusaders. 



At one saloon the pray- 
ing outside was responded 
to by fiddling and dancing 
inside; at another the keep- 
er swore to receive the Cru- 
saders with powder and ball, 
yet within a week both these 
recalcitrant dealers had sur- 
rendered. In the town of Clyde a pailful of cold water was 
dashed in the face of the woman who led the prayer. With- 
out a moment's pause she said: " O Lord, now we are bap- 
tized for thy work," and continued her supplications with 
more earnestness than ever. 

Elsewhere more violent measures were adopted. In Nor- 
walk the Crusaders were deluged with pailfuls of dirty water. 
At Columbus a saloon-keeper assaulted and seriously injured 
one of the praying band. In the city of Cleveland they were 



OF THE WORLV. 379 

outrageously treated. Mrs. W. A. Ingham, the leader of the 
band in that city, says: " On the third day of the street-work 
the whiskey-and-beer interest seemed to have awakened to a 
full consciousness of the situation. Drinkers, dealers, and 
roughs gathered in large numbers in the street to wait for 
the praying women. A mob, headed by an organization of 
brewers, rushed upon them, kicking them, striking them 
with their fists, and hitting them with brickbats. The 
women were locked in a store away from the infuriated 
mob, who on the arrival of a stronger body of police were 
•dispersed, cursing and yelling as they went. The next day, 
taking their lives in their hands, a larger company of women 
went out, and similar scenes were enacted. Meanwhile, pub- 
lic meetings, called in the churches, were so crowded that 
standing-room could not be found. The clergy as one man 
came to the front. Business-men left their stores and shops, 
ministers their studies, and a thousand manly men went out 
to defend the praying women. The military companies 
were ordered to be in readiness, resting on their arms; the 
police force was increased ; and the liquor interest was soon 
made to feel that the city was not under its control. The 
mob never again tried its power." 

For three months the praying bands, with hardly a day's 
intermission, continued their labors in the streets of Cleve- 
land. They were not again molested, but they met with a 
•discouraging lack of success. In Columbus, the State cap- 
ital, only seven out of four hundred saloons could be closed. 
In Cincinnati there was still less proportionate success. In 
that city the law came to the aid of the liquor-dealers, and 
under an ordinance which forbade the obstruction of the 
sidewalks fort5 7 -three women were arrested and lodged in 
jail. They were not kept there long, however. The au- 
thorities felt that they had a white elephant on their hands. 
Eail was offered, but the ladies refused to accept it, on the 



380 THE WHITE ANGEL 

ground that they had broken no law. After four hours' de- 
tention they were released without conditions, the city offi- 
cials apparently very glad to get rid of them. 

For eight weeks Cincinnati was vigorously crusaded by a 
band of about seventy energetic and earnest women. One 
lady in the party said, as they were approaching an elegant 
" sample-room," " I don't know why /am here. I have no 
one in my family who drinks. ' ' Yet almost the first person 
she saw in the saloon was one of her own sons wiping his 
moustache, evidently just after a drink. The mother turned 
pale as death. She recognized now the character of the 
enemy with whom she had to contend, and became one of 
the most earnest and active of temperance advocates. 

They met with very varied receptions. In some places 
they found the proprietors ready to give up their business, 
almost at the first asking. One man, of the name of Manly, 
surrendered at sight, telling the ladies that his stock was at 
their disposal, and that he would himself help them to pitch 
it into the gutter. He had been sick of the business before 
they came. 

" Beer-barrels were rolled to the gutter, and while their 
contents were gurgling out through the bungholes all the 
bottles on the shelves were brought out and dashed upon the 
pavement. After everything had been emptied out the pro- 
prietor thought of some fine old Catawba stowed away in his 
cellar. This was soon hunted up and shared the fate of the 
rest. He said he was bound to make a clean thing of it. ' ' 

In another place a German beer-seller, of a different frame 
of mind, obtained an old cannon, loaded it to the muzzle, 
and planted it before his saloon, swearing he would fire it 
into the ranks of the Crusaders if they attempted to disturb 
him. 

' i That very saloon was down in the route of one of our 
bands, and when we came to it and saw the ugly-looking 



OF THE WORLD. 



381 



machine and the Dutchman standing by with a lighted torch 
in his hand, we were not a little surprised, as you can well 
believe. But we did not hesitate long; we drew up in line 
right in front of the cannon and began to sing, and pretty 
soon the old fellow threw down the match and began to 
cry, declaring that though he ' vas not a bit afraid of dem 
voomans, he could not shtand dot singing." 




The German's Cannon. 



Mrs. Leavitt, the writer of the foregoing quotations, says: 

"Good Friday of 1874 was one of our great days. We 

had a band of about a hundred and twenty of the best 

ladies in Cincinnati that day. We started out from the 



382 THE WHITE ANGEL 

prayer-meeting at one of the churches, as our custom was, 
with orders to take a certain line of march and visit certain 
saloons. Our route was to go down to the Esplanade and 
hold a prayer-meeting on the flagstones near the fountain. 

' c When we came in sight of the place we saw a crowd of 
roughs evidently waiting for us, the leader of which had 
sworn a terrible oath that no woman should set her foot on 
the Esplanade that day. I did not know of it at the time, 
so we marched right along, two by two, up to where the 
crowd were trying to block up our path, and, going up to 
this leader, a big, burly fellow, half full of whiskey, I said, 

' ' ' My brother, you must help us to keep order. We are 
going to hold a prayer-meeting.' 

U A great change seemed to come over him all at once, for 
he said, 

" l Break ranks, boys ! These women are coming through. ' 

" The crowd obeyed him, and allowed us to pass to our 
station, formed in hollow square around us, and the leader 
detailed some of them to act as a special police to keep order 
while we held our meeting, saying, 

( ' ' We are going to see these ladies through. ! 

4( We began to sing ' Rock of Ages' ; next, i Jesus the 
water of life will give', and then a dear Quaker lady began 
to exhort those roughs to give their hearts to God. We for- 
got all about temperance, and held a real gospel-meeting, 
which made a profound impression on the crowd." 

Their services ended, the Crusaders returned to the 
church, escorted by the roughs, and there held a revival- 
meeting, at which the first man who came forward for 
prayers was the ringleader of the gang, the man who had 
sworn so bitterly that no woman should reach the Espla- 
nade. 

It was impossible, however, to produce any important 
effect in a city of three thousand saloons, and whose dealers 



OF THE WORLD. 385 

soon banded themselves into a league to firmly oppose the 
Crusaders. The principal success of the movement was in 
the smaller towns, where very many of the saloons were 
closed, while the effects upon the habits of the people were 
such that the sales of liquor and beer fell off more than 
sixty per cent. 

From Ohio the crusading movement passed to Indiana, 
where it met with great success. A severe license law 
there aided the ladies in their efforts to close the saloons. 
In Illinois the success was also encouraging. The move- 
ment eventuated in the city of Bloomington in a u License n 
or u No-License " vote at the city election, the ladies elec- 
tioneering so powerfully against license as to carry the u No- 
License" ticket by a decided majority. In Chicago no suc- 
cess was attained, while one party of Crusaders were mobbed, 
and were in such danger of violence that the police had to 
take them in charge and conduct them by a private way out 
of reach of the riotous crowd. 

Crusading bands continued to start up in State after State r 
until very many localities of the North had felt the influ- 
ence of the enthusiastic movement. In Wisconsin, Michi- 
gan, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, California, Oregon, Maryland, 
Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts parties of the 
praying sisterhood made their appearance and carried con- 
fusion to the whiskey-sellers of numerous towns in these 
commonwealths. 

The idea even crossed the Atlantic and Pacific and made 
its influence felt in England, Scotland, India, Japan, and 
China. 

Yet nowhere else did the enthusiasm and excitement 
equal that displayed in Ohio, the parent seat of the move- 
ment. It fell upon the more distant States but as the sub- 
siding ripples of a mighty wave, and, though some good 
results were attained in various localities of the East and 



384 THE WHITE ANGEL 

West, Ohio continued the centre of the most vital influ- 
ence. 

After a few months the crusading excitement began every- 
where to die away. Enthusiasm had been wrought up to 
too high a pitch of intensity to be long continued. As time 
went on difficulties accumulated, the remaining liquor- 
dealers grew steadily obstinate, and the praying ladies 
became worn out with their incessant labors, while the 
excitement which had sustained them necessarily subsided. 
The final result was that which invariably succeeds an emo- 
tional outbreak. Enthusiasm cannot long be sustained at 
fever-heat; chill always succeeds fever; and those who have 
been roused to extraordinary efforts find themselves wonder- 
ing at the strength which had sustained them and the dis- 
regard of social laws and customs which they had been led 
to display. Every wave that rises above the surface of 
society must sink to the common level again. Yet it may 
give rise to new waves, less lofty, perhaps, but for that very 
reason more enduring. 

* 

THE WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION. 

The woman's crusade did not die without leaving its 
mark. With the subsidence of the saloon-visiting enthu- 
siasm arose a natural desire to retain some permanent result 
of the feeling that had been excited and the good that had 
been achieved. Accordingly, in the spring of 1874 the 
crusading women of several of the States, particularly of 
Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, assembled in convention 
and organized State Temperance Leagues, or Unions as 
they were afterward called. 

In August a meeting was held at Chatauqua, N. Y., at 
which it was decided to take steps to form a National 
League, and the local leagues were called on to elect dele- 
gates to a convention to be held at Cleveland, Ohio, in 



OF THE WORLD. 385 

November. Delegates from sixteen States attended this 
convention, which met on November 18th and continued 
in session for three days. 

Active leaders in the crusades were prominent members 
of the convention, which was presided over by Mrs. Jennie 
F. Willing, the leading spirit in the enterprise. A consti- 
tution was adopted, with a plan of organization intended 
to reach every locality in the land. Appeals to the women 
of our country, to the girls of America, and to lands beyond 
the sea were issued; a memorial to Congress was ordered; 
a committee for temperance work among children appointed ; 
and a newspaper, the Christian Temperance Union, provided 
for. 

The officers chosen by the newly-organized society were — 
Mrs. Annie Wittenmyer of Philadelphia, President; Mrs. 
Frances B. Willard of Chicago, Corresponding Secretary; 
Mrs. Mary C. Johnson of Brooklyn, Recording Secretary; 
and Mrs. Mary A. Ingham of Cleveland, Treasurer. The 
closing resolution of the convention was as follows: 

"Resolved, That, recognizing the fact that our cause is, 
and is to be, combated by mighty, determined, and relentless 
forces, we will, trusting in Him who is the Prince of Peace, 
meet argument with argument, misjudgment with patience, 
denunciation with kindness, and all our difficulties and dan- 
gers with prayer. ' ' 

A truly Christian spirit, which, we may here say, has con- 
tinued to animate the society since the day of its formation. 

As to the work done by this association, some brief state- 
ments may be offered from the paper of Mrs. C. B. Buell in 
One Hundred Years of Temperance. 

In regard to crusade- work she says: "At the outset the 
women knew little of what had been done in the past, and, 
being alike ignorant of methods and wrought upon by a 
knowledge of suffering rather, perhaps, than by the broader 



$8 6 THE WHITE ANGEL 

feeling of philanthropy, they made the saloon their objec- 
tive point, and saloon-visiting was the first work of the 
Union. Not slow to learn, they soon found that the saloon 
constituted but the picket-line of the enemy, and that be- 
hind the formidable breastworks of fashionable society, 
deep down in the ravines of men's appetites, and behind 
the solid walls of legislation the liquor- traffic was strongly 
intrenched, and that it was the traffic, and not alone the 
saloon, that had set itself as the obstruction to their on- 
ward march. They learned that to drive in a few of the 
pickets did not capture the enemy, for from the main army 
so securely lodged behind the law new pickets were thrown 
out and a new line formed, often in advance of the old one. 
But they also learned that a constant firing on the pickets 
harassed the enemy, and so this plan of operations was 
for years carried on." 

The literary work of the society has been one of its most 
active. and useful fields of labor. It now consists of the 
publication of Our Union Signal, the present name of The 
Christian Temperance Union of 1875, and the issue of nu- 
merous Leaflets covering a great variety of subjects. There 
are embraced Cider, Beer, and Wine Handbills, leaflets on 
Gospel Temperance, leaflets for Young People, Primary 
Leaflets, Teachers' Tracts, pamphlets, etc. Many of these 
have had a large circulation, some running up into the 
million. Other books, particularly adapted to children, 
have been issued, including a series of works of great value 
introduced as textbooks into the public schools. We have 
already spoken of Mrs. Hunt's valuable labors as an agent 
of the society in procuring temperance public-school legis- 
lation. 

In addition to the public schools, the Sabbath-school 
has been constituted a special field of labor. Numerous 
petitions were addressed to the International L,esson Com- 



OF THE WORLD. 387 

mittee with the view of having temperance lessons intro- 
duced. As a result, it was decided in 1886 that quarterly 
temperance lessons should be added to the regular Sun- 
day-school course. These, in addition to the temperance 
instruction already given in Sunday-schools very gener- 
ally throughout the land, cannot fail to be of the utmost 
benefit to the coming generation. 

Besides its work in the schools, the W. C. T. U. has 
been exceedingly active in furthering the temperance or- 
ganization of children outside the schools, and to-day ' * the 
land is a network of these societies." The juvenile or- 
ganizations have been classed under various names, such 
as Juvenile Union, Temperance School, Band of Hope, 
Cold- Water Army, True-Blue Cadets, Cadets of Temper- 
ance, and Loyal Legion. ' ' The children are afield, and their 
war-cry is, ' Tremble, King Alcohol ! we shall grow up. ' ' ' 

This branch of temperance work is of such importance 
that some fuller statement of its results is here requisite: 
it is carrying the reform movement into its best and most 
promising field, that of the childhood of the nation, to an 
extent that our people generally are not well aware of. 
Recently the several juvenile associations under the fos- 
tering care of the Women's Christian Temperance Union 
have been organized into a single society entitled "The 
Loyal Temperance Legion," of which Mrs. Anna M. Ham- 
mer of Newark, N. J., is National Superintendent. This 
lady estimates the number of pledged children in the asso- 
ciation at five hundred thousand, divided into about five 
thousand local associations. These are mainly distributed 
through New England and the Middle States, though the 
Western States and Territories are coming nobly into the 
work, and the South is strongly interested in this depart- 
ment of the temperance reform movement. In addition 
to the above large and growing army is the great host of 



338 THE WHITE ANGEL 

pledged children in the Sunday-schools, the whole form- 
ing a mighty multitude who ere many years will have a 
voice in the making of our laws and the establishment 
of our institutions, and whose educatiou in temperance 
principles cannot but have a vital influence for good upon 
the future history of the country. 

Another important field of work of the society is the 
formation of Young Ladies' Leagues, which has grown 
with satisfactory rapidity. To some it might seem that 
such a service was of little importance, as the young women 
of America do not need to be banded against the temptations 
of drink. But when their influence upon young men is 
considered, the high value of this branch of the society 
must be recognized. It has already a considerable follow- 
ing of honorary members composed of young men. 

As illustration is often more convincing than argument, 
it may be well here to quote some anecdotes relating to the 
influence mentioned. Miss Willard gives some personal 
experiences relating to members of these leagues. She 
says that ' * in Cleveland I heard of three young ladies who 
went with three young gentlemen, and they were in the 
habit of taking wine. They went out into the country one 
day to spend an afternoon, something like a picnic, and 
when they were preparing to lunch the gentlemen brought 
out wine to place on the table. But these ladies looked with 
new eyes and new feelings upon this wine now, and they 
said, 'We cannot sit down at a table where there is wine; 
won't you please put it away?' And they said, ' Certainly, 
we will put it away if you wish it, and we will not take any 
ourselves. ' Thus, standing there true, they won their vic- 
tory. 

"I was in the Palmer House with a friend after one of 
our evening meetings, and I saw there a party of half a 
dozen ladies and gentlemen, and I saw the waiter bringing 



OF THE WORLD. 389 

wine. One of the young girls blushed, and it required 
some courage to say as she did, ' Gentlemen, I am sure you 
will be willing that we should have something else not 
quite so strong?' Courtesy, gallantry, and kindliness for- 
bade their refusing, and those girls, preaching there their 
sermon and standing firm, won their victory." 

There are illustrations on the other side showing the 
power of young girls for evil as well as for good. One of 
the most striking of these we shall quote. It is told by 
the Rev. Dr. Asa Mahan, formerly president of Oberlin 
College: " I knew of a young man who went to college and 
studied very successfully. Being of a bright and animated 
disposition, he was often invited to pleasure-parties, but, 
though he went to them, he never could be prevailed upon 
to take a glass of wine. He was engaged to be married to a 
young lady of the first rank, and all seemed to go well and 
promise a future happiness; but intemperance did its work. 
While at a party the young lady was told of the abstemious 
nature of her intended partner. She was told that nothing 
in the world could induce him to drink a glass of wine. 
■ Don't say so,' she said, ' till I have tried him.' She asked 
him to take a glass of wine from her. He firmly refused. 
She threw her charms about him; she prevailed: he got 
intoxicated. The abstemious youth became a drunkard and 
ran rapidly in the downward course. Her father, though in 
the habit of drinking himself, could not bear to see his 
daughter wed a drunkard, and he was ordered from the 
house. The father got into difficulties and became bank- 
rupt. He went into the back settlements to recruit his 
fortune. 

"One night, about twelve years afterward, while there 
was noise and dancing and music, a strange wailing sound 
was heard outside the building. It became louder and 
louder. All was silent. The music ceased. The door 



190 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



opened, and the figure of a man entered and threw himself 
on the floor, crying, ' God! save me from the fiends!' 
The young lady went up to him, and as she approached his 
upturned eyes met hers. It was too much for her; she 
fainted away. He whom she had wronged lay before her 
a poor maniac, and in two days more I had the melancholy 
duty of attending his funeral and hearing the clods of the 
valley rumbling upon his coffin. She is now, if living, 




The Betrothed's Remorse. 



in a lunatic asylum. Her father and mother sleep in an 
untimely grave. Oh, what an amount of sin must a per- 
son have to answer for who thus is the means of ruining a 
precious soul or causing a weak brother to perish!" 

That young women have, in this direction, the greatest 
influence for evil where they are weak and wicked enough 
to exert it, cannot be denied. But their influence for good 
is no less marked, and a resolute effort on their part to over- 
come the drinking habits of their gentlemen acquaintances 
cannot fail to be a powerful lever in the temperance cause. 
In this direction, therefore, the work of the W. C. T. U. is 
full of useful promise. 






OF THE WORLD. 39 1 

Among the useful methods of this society the value of 
prayer has not been forgotten, and a voluminously signed 
petition from Christians of all denominations and all coun- 
tries asks that one day of the "Week of Prayer" shall be 
devoted to the temperance reform. The use of unfermented 
wine only at the sacrament is another of the steps of prog- 
ress which it is earnestly seeking to accomplish. Peti- 
tions bearing many thousands of signatures have been pre- 
sented year after year asking for legal prohibition of the 
liquor-traffic by local option, by State prohibition, and by 
national repression. A considerable measure of success has 
been already attained through these efforts, and they are an- 
nually renewed. Their educational influence on the senti- 
ment of the country rmist be immense, and has been more 
than once clearly recognized in political party platforms. 

Of the other work performed by the Union must be par- 
ticularly named the coffee-houses and friendly inns, which 
have been of high utility in the temperance cause. The 
lunch-counter of the beer-saloon with its cheap enticement 
was originally attacked by Mr. Joshua Iy. Baily of Philadel- 
phia, who in the autumn of 1874 founded the first cheap 
temperance coffee-house of the country. 

It began in a modest way, with a few pounds of coffee and 
a few dozens of rolls, with a single attendant, a woman, who 
acted at once as cook and waitress. For five cents a pint 
mug of excellent coffee and a good-sized roll were fur- 
nished. 

This enterprise prospered. Hundreds of working-people 
soon found their way daily to the Central Coffee-house, and 
after a few years a more central institution was opened, "The 
Model Coffee-house," on South Fourth Street. The original 
institution has been closed, as no longer well situated, but 
the "Model" is very well patronized, and has added to its 
original bill of fare a considerable variety of viands, so that 



39 2 THE WHITE ANGEL 

a foil meal of wholesome and well-cooked food may be ob- 
tained there at a very cheap rate. The place has become one 
of the institutions of Philadelphia, and requires a large force 
of employes to serve its hundreds of daily guests. 

The idea has spread elsewhere, and given rise to u Friend- 
ly Inns" and " Holly-Tree Inns," cheap eating-houses, the 
seat at once of religious influences and temperance princi- 
ples. Chief among these may be named the Central Place 
Friendly Inn of Cleveland. ' This is situated in the roughest 
quarter of the city. It has a free reading-room, which is 
well patronized by men and boys, while revival religious 
services are constantly carried on. In one year's time three 
hundred and eighty-one meetings at this place were re- 
ported, with an attendance of 28,302 persons. The eating- 
house feature here is but an addendum to the religious work, 
which has been highly successful in redeeming men and 
women from the error of their ways. There is a Bible-class 
of over a hundred men and women, some of whom cannot 
read, but who profit by hearing. 

We have here named some of the principal directions in 
which the work of the W. C. T. U. has extended. It has 
other fields of labor — the flower mission, the prison visita- 
tion, the " efforts to induce physicians not to prescribe alco- 
holics," etc. — which it will suffice to name. The Union has 
been organized in every State and Territory of the United 
States, throughout Canada, and in many other parts of the 
world, the white ribbon, its badge of membership, having 
been carried by ardent missionaries east and west across 
the seas. 

At the fourteenth annual convention, held at Nashville 
in 1887, the secretary reported 6417 local Unions with 
136,912 members. The Young Women's Unions had a 
membership of 15,852. 

Such is the existing result of that wave of enthusiasm 






OF THE WORLD. 



393 



which in 1873 carried a few earnest women to the saloons 
of Hillsboro', there to seek by prayer to do the work which 
law and public opinion had proved powerless to effect. 

Before closing this chapter some further illustrative anec- 
dotes of the ( ( crusading era ' ' may be of interest. 

"Do you like to see your wife singing psalms in a sa- 
loon?" asked a critic of the temperance movement of a 
judge whose wife was one of the most active and influential 
of the Crusaders. ' 

"No, I cannot say I do; but I would rather see my wife 
singing hymns in such a place than to see my son there 
singing bacchanalian songs; and I have seen that." 

"But," continued the questioner, "do you like to see 
your wife kneeling on the dirty sidewalk in front of a 
rum-mill, saying her prayers?" 

"No, I cannot say that I like to see it; neither do I like 
to see my son lying in the gutter from the effects of the 
stuff which he bought at the rum-mill; and I have seen 
that." 

"Well, but, judge, do you like to see your wife march- 
ing along in a procession carrying banners and making a 
fuss along the public streets?" 

"No," said the judge, "I cannot say I like it; neither 
do I like to see my son marching in a procession of crimi- 
nals on their way to prison with chains about his hands; 
and I have seen that." 

To this conversation, which is vouched for as having 
actually occurred, we may add an illustration or two from 
the experience of Mrs. Wittenmyer. She remarks: " I was 
speaking in Wheeling not many months ago, and I under- 
stood before I commenced speaking that there were a good 
many liquor-dealers in the audience. I was very glad; it 
always helps me so much. After the meeting was over a 
gentleman came to me and said, 



394* 



THE WHITE ANGEL * 



Madam, if you go on and have success, you will break 
up my business.' 

' ' I said, ' I hope I will if you are a liquor-dealer. ' 




The Judge's Son. 

" 'No, I am not a liquor-dealer, but I keep the jail, and 
that is about the same thing. ' ' ' 






OF THE WORLD. 



395 



Another story told by the same speaker is the follow- 
ing: A liquor-dealer upon whom the Crusaders called met 
them at his door, pistol in hand. 

"Ladies," he said, "if you undertake to come into my 
saloon, I will shoot the first woman that attempts it." 

Well, they never knew exactly how it was, but a young 




Saloon-keeper and Crusader. 



lady of the company, as if constrained by a divine impulse, 
sprang up and stood beside him, singing, 



Never be afraid to work for Jesus, 
Never be afraid." 



396 THE WHITE ANGEL • 

Somehow, his arm got weak; the pistol hung by his side; 
tears came into his eyes; he stepped back and took a seat in 
the saloon. They went in and sung and prayed to their 
hearts' content. 

This was true courage, the courage of devotion to a good 
cause, the bravery of forgetfulness of consequences in the 
presence of duty. Enthusiasm, with its consequent fear- 
lessness, it is true, is not always of this pure character, but 
when it is thus founded on a holy cause it is the highest and 
noblest feeling of which the human mind is capable. 





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CHAPTER XVIII. 

TEMPORARY REFORM MOVEMENTS. 

IT is of interest to note the marked difference in character 
between the recent and the older temperance movements. 
The latter were outside the churches, and, so far at least as 
the Washingtonian enterprise was concerned, in antagonism 
therewith. It is not intended to say that the churches at 
that period lacked interest and activity in temperance work: 
we have given abundant evidence to the contrary. But they 
did not originate, and exercised no immediate control over, 
the special temperance organizations, which were due to 
enthusiastic uprisings of the people at large. 

The recent temperance organizations, on the contrary, 
have arisen within the churches, have been directed and 
controlled by church influences, and have thus brought to 
their aid the moral strength and powerful support of the 
great body of professing Christians of the land. Such is 
the case with the Catholic Total- Abstinence Society, which 
is backed and sustained by the great power of the priest- 
hood of the Roman Catholic Church. Such is the case 
with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which 
was originated by women of highly religious sentiments, 
which made prayer its chief instrument of action, and 
which is deeply intrenched in the Protestant churches of 
America. Such, again, has been the case with the move- 
ment we have now to consider, that of the Red-Ribbon 
Reform clubs. These, while resembling in certain features 

397 



3S>8 THE WHITE ANGEL 

the Washingtonian societies, differ from the latter in being 
in perfect harmony with the church organizations and in 
making prayer one of their chief instruments of action. 
The old method of temperance propagandism, in which 
arguments against the liquor power were plentifully inter- 
spersed with anecdotes, often of a ludicrous and irreverent 
character, has been replaced by a system of which religious 
exercises form a main feature, and in which prayers for 
God's help are looked upon as of more efficiency than 
amusing anecdotes. It is felt to be better to make men 
feel than to make them laugh. 

The Reform movement began in a manner not unlike 
that of the Washingtonian society. It originated in the 
town of Gardiner, Maine, in January, 1872. Mr. J. K. 
Osgood of that town, a man who had by hard drinking 
reduced himself from a position of high respectability to 
the lowest social level, resolved not only to reform himself 
but to lend his best aid for the reformation of other men. 

In August, 1 87 1, he had found himself out of business, 
out of money, and out of friends as a result of his bad 
habits. The world had fallen off from him and left him 
alone with his chosen companion, the rum-bottle. Late 
one night he returned home, and ere entering the door he 
paused to look through the window. There he saw his 
poor wife waiting in sorrowful patience for his return, and 
with an expression of countenance that touched his seared 
conscience. Struck suddenly with remorse, he resolved 
there and then, with God's aid, to end his evil course and 
drink no more. 

What joy that resolution brought to the heart of the wife 
need not be told. Great riches are looked upon by many 
as the highest boon of life. Yet it is doubtful if the gift 
of all the wealth of the world could bring more joy to the 
heart than that which flows in upon the wife whose hus- 



OF THE WORLD. 399 

band, after being an utter slave to drunkenness, has sud- 
denly resolved to "drink no more." 

Soon after his reformation Mr. Osgood, aided by an old 
friend, a lawyer, who had been induced by his entreaties to 
sign the pledge and escape from the dominion of the bottle, 
drew up a call for a meeting in the following words: 

"Reformers' Meeting. — There will be a meeting of 
reformed drinkers at City Hall, Gardiner, Friday evening, 
January 19th, at seven o'clock. A cordial invitation is 
extended to all occasional drinkers, constant drinkers, hard 
drinkers, and young men who are tempted to drink, to come 
and hear what rum has done for us. ' ' 

The hall was full on the night in question. Mr. Osgood 
and his legal friend described in eloquent language the his- 
tory of their slavery, their sufferings, and their deliverance, 
moving every one by the pathos of their story and produ- 
cing the strongest effect upon the drinking portion of the 
audience. 

Eight of their old companions signed the pledge at this 
meeting. Other meetings followed, and the "Gardiner 
Temperance Reform Club" was quickly organized. Be- 
fore many days its membership numbered one hundred, 
all of whom had belonged to the drinking fraternity. 

The idea spread with remarkable rapidity. Meetings 
were called and clubs formed in other towns, and in a few 
months the original hundred had grown to nearly twenty 
thousand of reformed drunkards. 

From Maine, Mr. Osgood proceeded in the following year 
to Massachusetts. Here, under the auspices of the Massa- 
chusetts Temperance Alliance, he organized about forty 
clubs, of which that at Haverhill numbered over three 
thousand members. His work was continued in New 
Hampshire and Vermont, in which States also many clubs 
were formed. 



400 THE WHITE ANGEL 

As to the organization of these clubs, it may be briefly 
said that by the articles of their constitution all male per- 
sons of eighteen years or over who have been in the habit 
of drinking are eligible to membership. If any objection to 
a proposed member is made, a two-thirds affirmative vote is 
necessary to his election. Any one desiring to withdraw 
can do so, if in good standing, by a majority vote of the 
members. If any one is reported as breaking his pledge, 
the case is to be investigated by the executive committee. 
In other respects the Reform clubs differ. Some admit 
women to their meetings and discuss political and relig- 
ious topics. Others permit only men to be present and 
only the subject of temperance to be discussed. 

Such was the first stage in the Reform Club movement. 
But it was destined to take a new shape and become more 
active for good in the work of a new advocate, Dr. Henry A. 
Reynolds, who has been aptly called the John B. Gough of 
the new movement. To the labors of this active champion 
of the good cause some detailed attention is requisite. 

DR. HENRY A. REYNOLDS. 

A native of Bangor, Maine, where he was born in 1839, 
Dr. Reynolds graduated in 1863 from the Harvard Medical 
School, entered the army as an assistant surgeon, and after 
the war returned to practice in his native city. His skill 
in his profession was acknowledged, he gained a promising 
practice, but he had become such a slave to drink that he 
rapidly sank into the lowest depths of drunkenness. His 
story is so interesting and instructive that we must suffer 
him to speak for himself. He says: 

u Iam one of the unfortunate men who inherited an 
appetite for strong drink. I love liquor as well as a baby 
loves milk. When I was but a child of not less than eight 
years of age I began to strengthen that appetite, first by 



OF THE WORLD. 



401 



drinking cider. Cider I call the devil's kindling-wood. 
Next, I used to drink native wines, then ale and lager 
beer, and the stronger drinks. I drank at parties, wed- 
dings, dances, etc. ; I had liquors on my table while keep- 
ing house, and treated all friends who called on me at my 
office or at home, for this I thought necessary to their 




Proper Entertainment. 

proper entertainment. I have really been a drinking-man, to 
a greater or less extent, for twenty years, the last six of these 
years to a greater rather than a less extent. I was a period- 
ical drinker from necessity, as I could not drink all the time, 
but a periodical drunk with me usually lasted six weeks. I 

had had the delirium tremens, and suffered the torments of 
26 



402 THE WHITE ANGEL 

the lost; but, for all that, I brought myself to the verge of 
the same suffering a hundred times afterward, knowing that 
I could not, in all probability, live through another attack. 
I was a slave to my appetite, and actually did not know how 
to rid myself of it. ' ' 

He owed, as he acknowledges, his deliverance from this 
terrible condition to the woman's temperance crusade, and 
stands as one of the most useful results of that noble mis- 
sion. He himself can best describe the manner of his con- 
version, as told in an address before the National Temper^ 
ance Convention: 

( ' It has cost me three thousand dollars for what I know 
about drinking intoxicants, and I consider my life previous 
to two years ago ten thousand times worse than thrown 
away. I have walked my father's house night after night 
for seven days and nights, a raving, crazy madman as the 
result of intoxicating beverages. 

"At the time that I was suffering and on the verge of de- 
lirium tremens I resolved to do something that I had never 
done before in order to rid myself of this infernal curse. I 
had ' drunk my last drink; ' I had broken my bottle; I had 
sworn off before a justice of the peace; I had tried to ' taper 
off; ' I had done everything men ordinarily do to rid them- 
selves of tHe habit of drinking, — all to no purpose. 

' ' My resolutions all went for nothing. Again I was on 
the verge of the tremens, where I could look over and see 
the serpents and devils and hear them hiss and howl at me; 
and it was evident that I must do something different from 
what I had done before if I was ever to be rid of this infernal 
appetite. I knew but very little about the Bible— drinking- 
men don't read the Bible much — but I knew God had prom- 
ised to assist those who ask in faith, believing; and I threw 
myself on my knees in my office, by my lounge, and asked 
Almighty God to save me, and promised him if he would 



OF THE WORLD. 4-OJ 

save nie from such sufferings I would be true to myself and 
him, and do what I could for the salvation of others. ' ' 

At that time, as he goes on to say, the noble band of cru- 
sading women was at its work in the West, and a small 
party of Christian women in his native city felt the inspi- 
ration and went out to public prayers against the power of 
rum. Dr. Reynolds caught at the opportunity which this 
offered him as a drowning man clutches at the plank of 
safety. He had tried everything else; he had tried the 
power of private prayer; now he would try the influence 
of the prayers of others in his behalf. 

At a temperance meeting held in Bangor by the Cru- 
saders he rose, pressed his way through the assembled 
crowd, and, to the wonder of all present, affixed his name 
to the pledge. The temperance women present looked on 
with a shocked and saddened feeling. They knew his record 
too well to be ready to believe that he was in earnest, and 
fancied that he had signed the pledge but as the bravado of 
a drunken joker. 

They very soon found out their mistake. The new con- 
vert gave evidence that he was in earnest. He began to in- 
duce others to reform, talking to his acquaintances, speaking 
at the meetings, and soon extending his labors to other towns 
as his speeches proved acceptable to his audiences. 

He still, as he relates, continued a slave to tobacco, which 
he used in profusion, and found it very difficult to break 
from. Yet he felt that he must do so if he would be con- 
sistent in his temperance work; and he succeeded in over- 
coming this appetite also by the power of prayer. 

"Don't you remember," he writes to a friend, " that we 
all kneeled down — two ministers, four temperance women, 
Frank Murphy, and I — and you all prayed for me, and I 
asked God to take away the appetite for tobacco, that I 
might become a stronger workman in his service? And 



404 THE WHITE ANGEL 

he did it instantly, then and there ; since which, time I 
have never known what it was to want tobacco; nor have 
I missed it any more than if I had never used it. 

1 ■ More than that, I at that time passed out into the ' peace 
that passeth all understanding. ' And I have remained there, 
only getting happier and happier all the time, until now I 
am the happiest man in the world. God has wonderfully 
blessed me in every way since then, and what has been ac- 
complished has been done by him through one of his most 
insignificant instruments." 

Through the aid of Dr. Reynolds, who at once and ener- 
getically took hold of the Reform Club movement, a new 
and useful element was introduced into its methods — that 
of prayer and religious enthusiasm. In his hands these 
were destined to have a wonderful effect. 

The first result of his efforts was the organization of the 
Bangor Reform Club, composed of eleven men, who met in 
response to his call on September 10, 1874. With the ardent 
spirit of the missionary the members of this little band went 
out in search of converts, and it was not many weeks before 
hundreds of men addicted to drink had joined the new so- 
ciety, while the city was in a state of excitement over the 
strange event that had developed in its midst. 

The excitement spread throughout the State. Dr. Rey- 
nolds, inspired at once by the spirit of temperance reform 
and by religious enthusiasm, gave up his profession and 
went out as an apostle of temperance. Within a year the 
Reform clubs of Maine numbered forty-five thousand men, 
all of whom had been rescued from the habit of drink. 

In September, 1875, Dr. Reynolds extended his ministra- 
tions to Massachusetts, in which State forty thousand re- 
formed drinkers were organized into Reform clubs within 
a year. 

The religion of Christ offers, in the opinion of this worthy 



OF THE WORLD. 405 

apostle of temperance, trie only salvation for the drunkard. 
The " will-power " had proved in his own experience use- 
less as a reformiug agent. It became his habit to face his 
audiences Bible in hand, declaring that the power of God 
alone could save those on whom appetite has strongly fas- 
tened its clutch. Prayer had saved him, and was able to 
save the most enchained slave to intemperance. 

The badge of membership in the Reform clubs was a 
piece of red ribbon tied to the lapel of the coat, the idea 
of which originated as follows: Dr. Reynolds had called a 
convention of delegates to meet at Baugor, Maine, in Sep- 
tember, 1874. While thinking over the subject it occurred 
to him that it would be well to have some badge through 
which these men might recognize each other. A few min- 
utes' thought ended in his sending his office-boy across the 
street to a dry-goods store for several yards of red ribbon. 
These he cut into six-inch pieces, fastened one to his own 
coat, and gave one to each of the delegates as they arrived. 
This red-ribbon idea took immensely, particularly in Michi- 
gan, to which State the movement soon extended, and be- 
came to the reformed drunkards a visible token of their 
pledge of total abstinence. 

The pledge which they took was the following: "Dark 
TO do Right. We, the undersigned, for our own good and 
for the good of the world in which we live, do hereby prom- 
ise and engage, with the help of Almighty God, to abstain 
from buying, selling, or using alcoholic or malt beverages, 
wine and cider included." 

This pledge means more than mere words, and the red- 
ribbon badge of abstinence quickly restored its wearers to 
that position of public respect which they had forfeited by 
their besotted habits. It is said, indeed, that some of the 
Michigan saloon-keepers refused to sell liquor to any man 
who had assumed the red ribbon. An instance in point is 



4o6 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



the following: A man wearing this badge in his button- 
hole entered a saloon in Jackson and called for a drink, 
yielding to the power of his tormenting thirst. The 
saloon-keeper had known him as a drunkard for years. 

" No," he answered resolutely; "I will not give you any- 
thing to drink. 
A man who has 
been damaged 
by liquor as 
much as you 
have, and who 
has been helped 
by letting it 
alone as much 
as you have, 
ought to know 
better than t o 

touch it again. A Red-Ribbon backsli 
Your family are happy too, and I 
will not be the man to destroy you 
and them." 

This work in Michigan is due to Dr. Reynolds, 
who proceeded there in November, 1876, on invitation of 
the National Christian Temperance Union. The result of 
his labors in that State is evidenced by a letter written in 
July, 1877, which says that "eighty thousand men in Michi- 
gan to-day wear the ribbon, all of whom have been drink- 
ing-men." The doctor's plan is "to take a State and settle 
down in it ' to stay ' until it capitulates to the red-ribbon 
pledge. ' ' 

The work of Dr. Reynolds was attended by all the fea- 
tures of enthusiasm which are the leading elements in such 
"revival" labors. Men would be brought up in masses, 
driven as if by some mighty wind, acknowledge the power 




OF THE WORLD. 407 

of God over their souls, and sign their names with tremb- 
ling hands to the pledge. Hundreds — almost thousands — 
would sign at single meetings. Among the many interest- 
ing scenes which occurred may be quoted the following, 
from Dr. Daniel's Temperance Reform: " One young lady, 
whose escort was about to pass by on the other side, in- 
formed him in firm but quiet tones that he must sign that 
pledge or bid her good-night right there. He looked the 
girl in the face, and, seeing that she meant just what she 
said, his admiration for the little woman conquered his 
false pride. 

"'Well,' said he, 'I'm in for it; here goes!' and he 
boldly stepped forward and signed his name, and, tucking 
the arm of the little maid under his own, he marched off 
with the air of a conqueror, more than repaid by the win- 
ning smile upon the lovely face lifted toward his." 

The great success attained by Dr. Reynolds in New Eng- 
land and the West encouraged other reformers to follow his 
example. Most prominent among these was a person of 
Irish birth and of a lower grade of society, whose labors 
were attended with remarkable results. We have next to 
consider the missionary work of this temperance pioneer. 

FRANCIS MURPHY. 

The ardent evangelist of the temperance reform here 
named tells his own life-story in such an eloquent fashion 
that we must trouble the reader with some brief extracts 
therefrom. He was born in Ireland, and brought up under 
circumstances that made him a tippler from childhood. 

"Unfortunately," he says, "it has been the fashion in 
my country, from time immemorial, to have liquor on the 
table; and it is thus that a great many young men have 
been brought into the habit of drinking." 

He goes on to say: " When you have a feast in this coun- 



408 THE WHITE ANGEL 

try the children are brought into the room and introduced 
to the friends who are assembled. This is not so in the 
' ould country. ' There the youngsters are gathered togeth- 
er, and all huddled out into the kitchen. When everything 
was ready my mother would call me to one side and say, 
' Frankie, come here now ; be a good boy ; keep perfectly 
still; go straight out of this room and make no noise. 
Mind that, now.' 

"Thus I remember being unceremoniously turned out 
into the kitchen when strangers were visiting us; and how 
my little fingers doubled up in perfect indignation at the 
treatment which I received ! I can yet feel the scalding tears 
coursing down my feverish cheeks at this cruel treatment. 

"Now, let me say this to you: Don't ask your friends to 
come to your homes at the expense of your children. 

1 1 But in this country it is far different from what it is in 
Ireland. There the wee folks have to go into retirement 
while the guests are feasting and revelling, but here in 
America young Dobbin is the first to be introduced by his 
proud and loving mother. He is there to be admired. 
Great deference must be paid him. He comes to the 
table with his nicely-arranged bib, and there he sits like 
a king, and the company must not be unmindful of his 
august presence." 

In other words, in Ireland the children are nothing; in 
America they are everything: A happy medium between 
these two conditions might be usefully instituted. Yet, as 
Mr. Murphy goes on to show, despite their banishment, the 
children managed to get a taste of the punch prepared for 
the guests, and learned, only to soon, to enjoy and desire it. 

He proceeds: "In 'ould Ireland,' if a half-dozen friends 
meet together, they must have ' a wee dhrap of the crather, 
av coorse.' They couldn't get along without it, such being 
the custom of the country; and it is a very pernicious and 



OF THE WORLD. 409 

debasing custom. Nobody likes liquor better than an Irish- 
man; I know it, for I am one of them. The whiskey un- 
loosens his generous nature. A glass or two tingles through 
his veins and makes him talk a great deal, and very often it 
is patriotic talk, for an Irishman is full of patriotism. But 
the whiskey soon flies to his head, and Pat is himself no 
longer. Drink is a most dangerous thing for anybody, 
but more especially for an Irishman. 

' ' In the ' ould country, ' however, a man would be con- 
sidered mean unless he had liquors on his table on spe- 
cial occasions; and no man likes to be called mean or 
stingy. To an Irishman there is something fascinating in 
the thought that he is a liberal man, and that his friends 
will say, 'I would like to visit him again; what beautiful 
whiskey and what splendid wine he has! it is glorious — and 
what a good fellow he is!' It is this social drinking that 
leads to so much intemperance in Ireland. It is the bane 
of that beautiful country, and so it is of yours." 

Francis Murphy came to America when sixteen years of 
age. He hired on a farm, and for six years lived a sober life. 
Then he married, and, despite the remonstrances of his wife, 
engaged in the liquor business with his brother in the city 
of Portland, Maine. 

He does not say how he managed to do business in that 
prohibition State, but he quickly fell into habits of hard 
drinking himself, sank lower and lower, and finally found 
himself in prison as a lawbreaking rumseller. 

He says in regard to the business in Maine: u The mo- 
ment you begin to fight rum, that moment you will find 
opposition. As long as four-fifths of the population drink, 
so long will men engage in selling rum, and it cannot be 
stopped unless the men can be induced to stop drinking. 
You can't drive them; they will find ways of getting it. 
The stringent law they had in Portland couldn't stop it. 



41 THE WHITE ANGEL 

One day I saw there an old lady in the market selling eggs 
at a dollar and a half a dozen. What wonderful pullets to 
lay such eggs! But the eggs had been emptied of their orig- 
inal contents, filled with whiskey, and sealed up again. 

' ' I never fought the prohibitory law. When I was en- 
gaged in selling liquor in Portland and the officers seized 
my stock, I never attempted to get it back by false swearing. 
There were men who were regular false swearers, and there 
were those who were ever ready to get them to swear for 
them. But these professional swearers, who could be ob- 
tained whenever they were wanted, were never of any use 
to me." 

We quote the foregoing as an interesting statement in 
reference to the discussion, "Does Prohibition prohibit ?" 
It seems not to have done so at that time in Portland, 
according to Mr. Murphy's experience. 

It was on the 30th of July, 1870, that Murphy was ar- 
rested as a liquor-seller. He remained in jail until October 
31st of the same year. The story of his prison-life is one of 
thrilling interest. His wife and family were reduced to the 
greatest extremities. The children had to be taken from 
school and sent into the streets to try to earn a little 
money, yet despite their exertions the house was often 
empty of bread. 

On the day before his release there was not a crumb of 
bread left in the house, and his wife in despair wrote him 
the following note: 

" Dear Husband: I have had a week of bitter trial. My 
strength is failing me. I cannot live long, but don't be dis- 
couraged. My trust is in God. ' ' 

In less than three months afterward this faithful wife and 
mother died a victim to the intemperate habits and illegal 
business of her husband, slain by the rum which he had 
poured down his besotted throat. 



OF THE WORLD. 



411 



But he left the prison a different man from what he had 
entered it. He had been reformed while there by the visits 
of a noble-hearted man, Captain Sturdevant, who made visits 
to the poor and un- 
fortunate a part of 
his li fe 's work. 
One of these visits 
the prisoner thus de- 
scribes 




Fate of the Drunkard's Family. 



"The next Sunday there was another prisoners' meeting. 
The captain was there, and so were my wife and children. 
As the meeting went on my eldest daughter, Mary, crept 
up to her father's side, bringing a beautiful bouquet of 
flowers. Then she threw her arms about my neck, and said, 
4 Father, we have been so lonesome for you!' and I answered 
her, ■ Daughter, I have been so lonesome for you ! and, God 
helping me, I shall make an effort to be a sober man. ' 

"When the meeting was over Captain Sturdevant came 
to my cell, and there we had a little prayer-meeting. The 
captain knelt close by me, and, placing his arm lovingly 
around my neck, he said, 

" ' Mr. Murphy, give your heart to Christ and all will be 
well with you.' 



41 2 THE WHITE ANGEL 

"Ina little while my family came in. 

' ' I hardly dared to look to Heaven, for I had been such a 
sinner; but a ray of hope came to my poor aching heart, 
and then, with my suffering wife and children, we all knelt 
down together upon the cold, dark prison floor and prayed to 
God for mercy and grace. The work was there done, and I 
arose from my knees with an evidence of God's acceptance 
of me. Blessed be his name!" 

Immediately after his release from prison Mr. Murphy be- 
gan his efforts to reform drunkards. At the invitation of 
some citizens of Portland he held a temperance meeting on 
April 3, 1 87 1, and told his experience with such effect that 
a number of his old companions signed the pledge. Thirty 
or forty such lectures were given, his labors in that city end- 
ing in the formation of a Reform club. 

His native eloquence and his influence over his audience 
were such that invitations soon came for him to speak in 
other towns, and he began that remarkable career which has 
made his name famous. He delivered lectures throughout 
Maine, and went from there to Rhode Island, where he had 
great success in inducing drunkards to reform. His lecture- 
field soon embraced all New England, and thousands of 
inebriates were induced to sign the pledge. 

In the latter part of 1874, on the invitation of Miss Fran- 
ces E. Willard, president of the Woman's Temperance 
Union of Chicago, he went to that city, and on November 
5th began a series of thirty-two lectures, as a consequence 
of which eleven Reform clubs were organized. His lectures 
extended from that point throughout the West, and were 
attended with remarkable results. 

"At the town of Sterling, where he delivered eight lec- 
tures, fifteen saloons were found in full blast, every one 
of which was voluntarily closed in a few days by the pro- 
prietors. ' ' 



OF THE WORLD. 413 

But his most extraordinary success was attained in Pitts- 
burg, to which city he repaired in the latter part of 1876. 
His work continued there during the winter, with the 
result of obtaining over sixty thousand signatures to his 
pledge and forcing five hundred saloons to close for want 
of patronage. 

Touching stories are told of the scenes that took place at 
these meetings, one or two of which we quote: 

"At the Smithneld M. E. t Church— worthy old 'brim- 
stone corner' — one evening a young man stepped up and 
signed the pledge. Scarcely had he done so when a young 
woman with a babe in her arms came forward, and, falling 
upon his neck, kissed him and wept. Drink had separated 
the young couple; and as, with pledge in pocket and the 
baby on one arm and his wife on the other, the husband 
walked through the crowd and received the congratulations 
of everybody, it is safe to say Pittsburg held not a happier 
man." 

' 'At one of the noon meetings a gentleman was walking 
up to sign the pledge when a curly-headed little fellow, 
who had been nestling under a lady's arm, jumped up on the 
cushions of the. pew they were seated in, and, clapping his 
hands in childish glee, exclaimed, 'Oh, auntie! auntie! 
there goes papa to sign the pledge! Now let's go and tell 
mamma;' and his childish haste to 'go and tell mamma' 
brought tears to the eyes of many who witnessed his boyish 
raptures. ' ' 

The lectures of Mr. Murphy were extended from Pitts- 
burg through other portions of Pennsylvania and into New 
York with like success. It is said that in Tioga county, with 
thirty-five thousand inhabitants, twenty-one thousand signed 
the pledge, and that Trumansburg, N. Y., with eighteen hun- 
dred inhabitants, furnished twenty-five hundred signers, the 
surplus being made up of visitors from the country. 



41 4 ™E WHITE ANGEL 

In the spring of 1877, Mr. Murphy extended his ministra- 
tions to Philadelphia. For several months his meetings 
were held in the Annex building on the grounds of the 
Centennial Exhibition. Since then his advocacy of tem- 
perance has extended widely throughout the country, and 
everywhere with marked success. 

We have not space to follow and describe in detail the 
labors of this enthusiastic temperance advocate, who, like 
his fellow-worker, Dr. Reynolds, made religion the basis of 
his appeals, and taught his converts to put their trust in 
God and call upon him to deliver them from temptation. 

The societies formed under his ministrations and those of 
his aids organized themselves in 1877 into the u National 
Christian Temperance Union," under the presidency of 
Francis Murphy. In the report of its second convention, 
held in October, 1877, the claim is made that fully three 
millions of people had signed the total-abstinence pledge 
in the different fields of labor to which the Murphy reform 
extended. 

As the white and red ribbons formed the badges of two 
preceding associations, this new order adopted the blue rib- 
bon as its badge. The pledge signed was the following: 

1 'National Christian Temperance Union. 

u ' With malice toward none and charity for all? 
"I, the undersigned, do pledge my word and honor, God 
helping me, to abstain from all intoxicating liquors as a 
beverage, and that I will by all honorable means encour- 
age others to abstain." 

At the meetings the campaign songs of Moody and San- 
key formed an important feature of the exercises, Mr. Mur- 
phy's own favorite hymn being, "I hear Thy welcome 
voice." His lectures were in a true sense temperance ser- 
mons, and the reformed drunkards were called upon to 



OF THE WORLD. 415 

trust in the grace of God as their only safe refuge from 
their besetting sin. 

The merits of this method of reform are undoubtedly 
great, though, as Mr. T. S. Arthur justly observes in his 
Strong Drink, l c To make gospel temperance the true power 
of God unto the salvation of intemperate men, we must 
have in it, and with it, the gospel of conflict with evil, the 
gospel of daily right living, the gospel of love to the neigh- 
bor, and the gospel of common sense." 

The writer whose name we have here given was such a 
power in the cause of temperance that some further men- 
tion of him is desirable. Born near Newburg, N. Y., in 
1809, nearly his whole life was spent in the pursuit of liter- 
ature, and his contributions to the cause of temperance have 
been a power for good in the land. Of these the best known 
were Six Nights with tiie Washingtonians ■, Three Years in a 
Man-trap, and Ten Nights in a Bar-room — works in which 
the terrible influence of rum is most dramatically and feel- 
ingly displayed. It is doubtful if any other publications 
were ever of equal benefit to the temperance reform move- 
ment, their value as works of literature being greatly added 
to by their influence as dramatized and made a speaking 
lessons of the evils of intemperance upon the stage in all 
our cities. Mr. Arthur died at Philadelphia in 1885. 

It is of some interest to observe, in relation to the remark 
above quoted, that the various waves of enthusiasm which 
have attended the progress of the temperance reform move- 
ment all sank away after a few years, and left little or no 
visible trace of their temporary remarkable effects. Such 
was the story of the Washingtonian and the Father Mathew 
movements, the Woman's Crusade, and various other surges 
of the spirit of reform. It is sincerely to be hoped, however, 
that the introduction of the element of prayer and religious 
influence into the good work may yield more permanent re- 



41 6 THE WHITE ANGEL 

suits than came from exercises of a purely secular cha- 
racter. 

The fact stands good that the public mind cannot be long 
kept up to fever-heat, and that promises made and resolu- 
tions taken under the influence of enthusiasm and excite- 
ment are apt to lose their force when cool reflection suc- 
ceeds and the temporarily repressed force of appetite begins 
to renew its strong solicitations. At this point comes in 
the necessity of organized bulwarks against temptation, the 
banding into societies, with the powerful influence of advice 
and persuasion, respect for the strong and contempt or pity 
for the weak among fellow-members, to keep the feet of the 
wanderer in the new paths he has pledged himself to tread. 

It is in this way that the enthusiastic outbursts have fur- 
thered the cause of temperance. To them we owe most of 
our temperance societies with their multitudes of members 
— lakes which have received the overflow of the waters of 
revival reforms, and prevented them by strong barriers from 
flowing back again into their old and base channels. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

GOSPEL AND INDUSTRIAL TEMPERANCE. 

r I "HE religious element introduced into temperance meet- 
■*■ ings and societies by the Woman's Crusade, the Rey- 
nolds and Murphy reform exercises, etc. has added greatly 
to the influence of the temperance element in the churches 
and thrown the saving cloak of religion around the whole 
movement. The cause of temperance reform made its way 
as a prominent feature into religious revival meetings, and 
in the remarkable progress of Moody and Sankey through 
the country it was not forgotten that ' ' cleanliness (of soul) 
is next to godliness." 

Mr. Moody taught that temperance is one of the Christian 
virtues, and gave one day out of each week's services to the 
work of saving drunkards from the sin of over-indulgence. 
In his view of gospel temperance the power of divine grace 
was the only means of salvation from this sin. Man, as he 
believed, has not the power to save himself. Reform clubs, 
benefit associations, pledge-signing, etc. are useless. Trust 
in the grace of God is the only safeguard for the reformed 
drunkard. 

Missionary work of every kind is undoubtedly valuable. 
If not all that promise are saved, many are, and the friends 
of temperance can gladly welcome every effort, of whatever 
kind, to overcome the drinking habits of the community. 
The effects of such efforts reach farther than to the individ- 
ual cases of reform. Most of these may not be permanent, 
27 417 



41 8 THE WHITE ANGEL 

but the growth of a sound and wholesome public opinion is 
fostered; the sentiment of the community — even in some 
measure of its drinking portion — is made more and more 
averse to the liquor-traffic; the quiet but persistent efforts of 
the temperance associations are strengthened; and the abhor- 
rence of intemperance grows more vigorous and decided with 
every rousing up of the sleeping sentiment of the commun- 
ity. Nations progress politically more in weeks of war than 
in years of peace, and the same may be said of the influence 
of periods of revival and enthusiasm on the progress of pub- 
lic opinion in regard to works of reform. 

Dr. Reynolds has said that even when he was most under 
the influence of rum he never failed to vote the Prohibition 
ticket of his native State. Lost in drunkenness as he was 
himself, he would not lend his voice to any act to increase 
the liquor-power. Sixty years ago no such sentiment ex- 
isted among drunkards, and scarcely any such among sober 
men. The development of a healthy public opinion in 
regard to the liquor-traffic among sober and drunken men 
alike is one of the most important effects of the temperance 
agitation ; and there is no more promising sign of the times. 

We do not need to describe in detail the Moody and San- 
key revival exercises. It will suffice to say that they were 
not unlike in general character the Murphy meetings, with 
the exception that the temperance reform was in them a 
secondary not a primary purpose. In illustration of their 
work may be given an instance of the reformation of a 
drunkard, as described by Mr. Moody: 

"I remember a man in Chicago who was the greatest 
drunkard I ever knew; he was in the habit of drinking ten 
or a dozen glasses of lager beer every day. But while we 
were holding meetings there one cold day in the winter he 
came into the Tabernacle, and the Spirit of God touched his 
heart and he resolved to reform. He had no home; he used 



OF THE WORLD. 



419 



to spend his time hanging about the saloons, where, too, he 
spent what little money he managed to get. But now his 
heart was touched, and he resolved to keep away from the 
tempter; so he went to a cheap lodging-house. They gave 
him a bed there in a great room w 7 ith a good many other 
rough, wild, wicked people, who were talking and laughing 
and swearing until late into the night. 

"This used not to trouble him, but now his ears were 
troubled by these vile words. He endured it for a while, 
and then arose from his bed in the middle of the night, put 
on what clothes he had (the poor man was so far gone that 
he had no overcoat, and his boots were quite worn through, 
so that they let in the snow), and in this condition walked 
the streets of Chicago 
all the rest of the night 
rather than spend it in 
that wicked place. 

"He came to us the 
next morning and told 
us about it. ' I was a 
walking prayer all 
night,' said he. Such 
prayer as that was sure 
to come into the ears of 
the Lord, and the man 
who was once hopeless 
is to-day a happy Chris- 
tian." 

It may not be without 
interest to compare this 
instance of religious con- 
version from drunken- 

The Convert's Tramp. 

ness from Mr. Moody's 

experience with a remarkable case of reform from rum- 




420 THE WHITE ANGEL 

drinking of earlier date. It is a story told by John Haw- 
kins as a part of his experience in reforming drunkards. 

When at Brunswick, Maine, he was told of a most despe- 
rate case, one Walker, who worked in a tanyard near by. It 
was declared that he was past saving, but Hawkins deter- 
mined to try. He called on the man, and found him a raw- 
boned and muscular giant. From his pocket there protruded 
the neck of a bottle. Seeing Hawkins's eyes fixed on it, he 
declared, "I cannot do without it." 

After some conversation he remarked to a doctor present, 
* ' You know I cannot reform. You and I calculated some 
time ago that I had averaged one quart per day since my 
birth, forty-two years ago. Do you think I can stop ?' ' 

He was induced, however, to promise to attend the tem- 
perance meeting. Taking the bottle from his pocket, he 
buried it in the tan, saying, "Lie there. I'll not take any 
more till to-morrow." 

u Oh," he said, after persuasion had brought him into a 
softened mood, " when the horrors come on me (I know they 
will), will you stand by me ? I want you to get a chain and 
staple, drive it into the floor, fasten the chain round me, and 
keep by me." 

At night he appeared, according to promise, at the meet- 
ing. Hawkins talked to him. Tears came into his eyes. 
Then the experienced lecturer knew he had him. When 
invited to sign the pledge, Walker stepped forward, grasped 
the pen, leaned forward as if to write, and then suddenly the 
pen dropped from his hands, his arms were thrown wildly 
above his head, and he stood before the audience the image 
of despair. U I cannot write my name!" he cried out in 
a tone of thrilling intensity; "I cannot write my name!" 

The last ray of hope seemed slipping from him, as from 
one who felt that his final chance of salvation lay in those 
ink-marks on the paper. 



OF THE WORLD. 42 1 

Hawkins quickly stepped forward, explained to him that 
he could make his mark, and himself wrote the name, while 
the despairing inebriate gladly obeyed the directions, made 
his cross upon the paper, and stood up a free man. Months 
afterward Hawkins heard that Walker was still a sober man, 
and had come out as an apostle of the cause by giving his 
experience as a drinker at temperance meetings. 

Mr. Moody's revival work has been assisted by other earn- 
est temperance advocates, but we have space here to speak 
only of certain singular instances of reform and evangelical 
temperance. 

JERRY McAULEY. 

It would have been difficult to find in New York a seem- 
ingly more hopeless case than that of the man whose name 
is here given. He was a river-thief by profession, a gam- 
bler, prize-fighter, and general criminal — the terror of Water 
Street when drunk, its pet and pride when sober, with the 
warmest heart and heaviest hand among all his associates. 

He had been guilty of almost every crime short of mur- 
der. Yet in Sing-Sing prison, whither he had gone in pun- 
ishment for some of his misdeeds, he became converted from 
the error of his ways, and changed from a desperate ruffian 
into an earnest Christian. 

His wife had been even worse than himself — a debased 
drunkard, steeped in every sin, and wife only by courtesy 
until after her conversion. Jerry's change of life produced 
its natural influence upon her, and the conversion in her 
case was even more remarkable than in his. From a harsh- 
voiced, bloated virago, she is described as becoming a "sweet- 
faced woman, with her hair combed smoothly over her broad, 
handsome forehead, her blue eyes full of love and happiness, 
and her whole face and form marked by a quiet repose.' ' 

There was never a more marked instance of conversion 



422 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



than this of Jerry McAuley; and the reformed criminal and 
drunkard resolved to do his utmost to redeem his old asso- 
ciates. He opened a "mission " at 316 Water Street, in the 
midst of dance-houses and brothels, beer- and whiskey- 
shops, and there undertook the work of Christian labor 
among the sailors, stevedores, truckmen, and others who 
made that locality their head-quarters. His proper work 




The Drunken Virago. 



was Christian revival, but drunkenness was one of the 
chief sins with which he wrought and struggled. 

Over the door were the words, "Jerry McAuley \s Prayer- 
Meetings," and within the little hall prayers and revival 
services went on every evening and every Sunday afternoon 



OF THE WORLD. 423 

the year round. As for the methods pursued, we must let 
Jerry speak for himself. 

"We start the meeting sharp at half-past seven," he 
says; "the man who reads the Bible takes till a quarter of 
eight — if he is a long-winded feller he stretches it out till 
eight; then I take hold of it, shut the speeches down to one 
minute, and on we go for three-quarters of an hour with tes- 
timonies. ' ' 

Of the many interesting statements that are given con- 
cerning the McAuley Mission we have space for but an ex- 
tract or two from Jerry's testimony in relation to the liquor 
appetite: 

"You see, it is something like this: Blow out a candle, 
and it is out, but the candle is there ready to be lighted 
again. Just so it is with the drunkard's appetite who gets 
converted all over: the candle is out. The devil stands 
ready to light it again, but so long as the convert stands 
fast in the faith the old enemy can't do it; but just let 
him commit one sin, no matter what it is, and the devil 
will out with his brimstone and touch off that appetite. 

{ c Mebbe I can put it in another way, so you will under- 
stand better: You know about these men they call lion- 
tamers? Well, now, would you rather go into a cage of 
lions along with the tamer, or would you rather go in 
alone? Jest so the old lion, appetite, is tamed by the 
grace of Jesus Christ, and as long as you stick to him you 
are all right; but the minute you try to go within reach of 
any sin alone, the old lion is on you, teeth, claws, and all." 

"There's lots of religion in a good, hearty shake of the 
hand," said Jerry in another address — "lots of sympathy 
in it — lots of love in it. And then, too, there's lots of 
religion in a beefsteak if you give it to the right man at 
the right time. Last Thanksgiving Day I got a sailor into 
the kingdom of God with a bowl of soup and a couple of 



424 THE WHITE ANGEL 

bits of bread. It was a raw, chilly day, and this poor fel- 
low came in ragged and cold. He had an eye like a black- 
snake — a bad eye; I didn't like it. Found out afterward 
that he had just been in the Tombs for mutiny. How- 
ever, I went up to him, and says to him: 

" ' Didn't you have a good mother?' 

" One of the boys gave me the wink, so I went and 
brought him a bowl of Thanksgiving soup — we had made 
a big pot of it out of a great pile of chicken-bones and 
turkey-carcasses that had been sent in— and that reached 
him. He took the soup, and as he ate it the tears began 
to run, and right away we had that poor sailor, who used 
to be hating everybody in the world, down on his knees 
praying to Jesus to save him. And he did save him. 

"You see, boys, it was the soup that did it — soup in his 
hungry, hungry stomach, then Christ in his lost soul." 

ORVILLE GARDINER. 

There is in temperance literature nothing more thrilling 
than the story of his conversion told by the man whose 
name is given above. Orville Gardiner — or "Awful" Gar- 
diner, as he was not unaptly nicknamed — bore the reputa- 
tion of being the wickedest man in New York, and had 
done his utmost to deserve this unsavory title. He was a 
prize-fighter, blasphemer, and drunkard, for whom no wick- 
edness was too bad. Yet he had a pious mother, who was 
continually in prayer for the conversion of her son, and who 
never lost hope that he would turn from his evil ways, though 
hope itself seemed hopeless. 

He had a wife and one child, a boy, who seems to have 
been the one being capable of touching his seared heart. 
The boy was drowned, and the heart of the father became 
broken up as it had never been before. In his desperation 
he grew almost raving mad, and poured the liquor down 



OF THE WORLD. 425 

his throat in torrents in the wild effort to drown grief in 
drink. ' ( I drank sixty glasses in twenty-four hours, ' ' he 
declares. 

Some time afterward the desperate father found himself 
in a saloon in company with several fighting-men, all 
drinking deeply. -It was a warm night, and he left the 
saloon and walked out into the air. He looked up into 
the heavens and saw the stars shining above him, and the 
thought came into his mind, * ' I wonder where my boy 
is ?' ' Wherever the child-spirit was, the father felt that he 
was not on the right road to ever meet him again. 

This thought struck home to his troubled soul. It was 
the turning-point in his evil career. Full of remorse and 
with the earnestness of a new resolution he hurried home, 
sent away two men whom he had been training as prize- 
fighters, and hastened to his mother's house. The pious 
old lady listened with almost incredulous joy to his request 
that she would pray with him, and gladly joined her voice 
to his in supplication to the throne of the Most High. 

"But, mother," he declared, "I cannot be a Christian 
until I give up drink; and that is the hardest work of all. 
But to-day I will drink myself to death or I will win the 
victory. ' ' 

The remainder of his story is a drama of singularly thrill-' 
ing interest. He bought an earthen jug which held about 
two quarts of the liquid poison, and carried it in a boat 
across the river to. L,ong Island. Here he buried himself in 
the woods, set the jug on a stone before him in the centre 
of a cleared space, and began one of the hardest battles on 
record. 

" I will give you up for ever or I will never leave this 
place alive," he declared with set teeth. "I will drink the 
whole of you or I will conquer Vou." 

For nine long and weary hours the strong man struggled 



.426 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



with his demon-like appetite — fought as though it had been 
a visible devil before him. 

' ' I was afraid to break 
the jug," he declared, 
u for fear the smell of 
the liquor would drive 
me mad. My knees 
were so sore from kneel- 
ing while crying to God 
to help me that I could 




Gardiner and the Jug. 

hardly move. I knew my mother was praying for me at 
home. I kicked a place in the soft loam and took up the 
jug, held it at arms' length, and placed it in the hole. 
Then I covered it up and stamped upon it. And from that 
•day to this not a drop has ever passed my lips." 

No victory won by Napoleon over thousands of armed 
enemies needed the courage shown by that solitary man in 
his battle with the jug, while in moral grandeur that fight 



OF THE WORLD. 427 

of ' ' one to one ' ' has seldom been surpassed in all the his- 
tory of human conflict. 

The reformed man became a temperance lecturer, with an 
experience to relate that touched the soul of many a drunk- 
ard and did its share in saving the fettered victims of the 
rum-bottle. He says: "I have been locked up all over the 
country. I have been locked up in New York, Albany, and 
all through Canada, and away down South; and always for 
getting drunk or getting in a fight while under the influence 
of the maddening cup. But a merciful God has spared me 
and stayed my steps ere yet it was too late." 

We may close our remarks on gospel temperance with an 
apposite and pointed illustration from Dr. Jewett. He was 
being entertained after a lecture at the house of a minister 
in New Jersey, of whose opinions he knew something in 
advance. During their conversation the host said: 

1 ' Dr. Jewett, what do you think of the gospel as a re- 
formatory agent?" 

"Great! wonderful!" replied the doctor, perfectly aware 
of what was coming. 

4 ' I mean its power to save the drunkard and do up this 
temperance work," added the preacher. 

"I understand you: nothing like it! perfectly marvellous ! 
Only let it reach the heart, ' ' answered Dr. Jewett. 

' ' I did not know that your opinions accorded so nearly 
with my own; those are my sentiments," continued the 
minister. "If men would become Christians they would 
not become drunkards." 

i 'And if drunkards would become Christians they would 
be drunkards no longer," responded Dr. Jewett. 

"Well, doctor, what need, then, of this outside temper- 
ance work ? Why not give ourselves to preaching the gos- 
pel wholly, and let that accomplish the work?" remarked 
the minister with an air of confidence in his position. 



428 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



i 'The case is just here," replied the doctor, rising from 
the lounge: "I was educated for a physician. I am called 
to a patient who is in a state of asphyxia from over-eating, 




Doctor and Patient. 

and is nigh unto death. I know that the gospel is just 
suited to his spiritual necessities, but I shall not spend a 
moment in exhortation or preaching: / shall giv£ him 
twenty grains of ipecac at once. You must get the rum out 
of a man before you can put the gospel in." 

This sally of wit converted the conservative doctor of 
divinity into a radical advocate of temperance. 

As to the aspect of the temperance movement which we 
have considered in this and the preceding two chapters, we 
cannot do better than to offer some short quotations from the 
speeches delivered during the reception (April, 1887) of 



OF THE WORLD. 429 

Canon Wilberforce, the great English apostle of temperance, 
in New York. We must premise by saying that the recent 
steps of temperance reform have, like all the preceding 
American movements in this direction, crossed the ocean 
and produced a marked effect in the British Islands. 

At the reception in question Canon Wilberforce remarked : 
11 The aspect of the movement which has most recommended 
itself to my own mind is what is called ' gospel temperance.' 
It was connected, when first it came over to England, with 
the external symbol of the blue ribbon. Nothing has sur- 
prised me more than to find that I am almost the only blue- 
ribboner in New York; I cannot understand it. I have been 
permitted to see a greater wave of blessing up and down 
England following the track of the total-abstinence move- 
ment under the badge of the blue ribbon than by any other 
agency. 

■ ' When we took up the blue ribbon and used it in some 
of the great towns in England, the movement went over the 
country with a power and enthusiasm that I think would 
have enlisted every one of you. The advantage of it is this 
— that it makes a man confess his new-found faith before 
others. The movement has made a great many people total 
abstainers. I am sure I am not exaggerating when I say 
that in the course of the last fourteen years I have seen 
half a million pledges signed, and out of the great number 
that have signed I do not suppose I should be putting the 
figure too high if I were to say that one-half have been 
faithful to their pledges. You can readily see the blessed 
brightness that must have been brought into thousands of 
homes in Great Britain by such a movement as the gospel 
temperance work has accomplished. The result of it was 
not only to make a great many total abstainers, but to bring 
a vast number of people definitely under the power of con- 
version The gospel temperance movement has clear- 



430 THE WHITE ANGEL 

ly been blessed of God; and if it originated in America, I 
would like very much to know what has become of it." 

The question here asked was thus answered by Mr. A. M. 
Powell: 

' ' Perhaps I may answer the question of Canon Wilber- 
force in a single word about the disappearance of the blue 
ribbon in America. It did obtain here as I saw it last 
year and three years ago in England. It obtains still to 
some extent, and wherever Francis Murphy and Mr. Booth 
hold their mission meetings, there you will see the blue or 
the red ribbon as it is seen in England at the present time. 
.... But I think you will notice, as you pass from city to 
city and from town to town in America, another colored rib- 
bon, more numerous here than with you, and that is the 
white ribbon, which is by far the most significant ribbon 
that is shown to our public at the present time. It repre- 
sents total abstinence, and it also represents what you know 
as { the purity crusade ' on the other side of the Atlantic. 
It is touching the hearts and leavening the lives of hundreds 
and thousands of American men and women at this time. 
And so the red, the blue, and the white ribbon have their 
significance to a very large extent among our people." 

There is another significance in this not noticed by the 
speaker; and this is that in the temperance reform move- 
ment the red, white, and blue of America — the flag of moral 
progress — has been carried in its career of conquest to Eng- 
land, against whose armies of conquest originally arose the 
red, white, and blue of the American standard of liberty. 
We might indulge in the hope that all future conquests 
may be of the same peaceful and desirable nature. 

REFORMATORY HOMES. 

There are one or two further steps in the " moral-sua- 
sion " temperance movement of recent times of which we 



OF THE WORLD. 43 1 

must here speak. The institution of "homes" for the 
drunkard is an idea that has been in vogue some thirty 
years. The first of these institutions, named the "Wash- 
ingtonian Home," was opened on Waltham Street, Boston. 
In 1863 a similar enterprise came into existence in Chica- 
go, a " Washingtonian Home" composed of a handsomely- 
fitted-up building with accommodations for over one hun- 
dred inmates. In 1872 "The Franklin Reformatory Home" 
was established in Locust Street, Philadelphia. 

These are not hospitals for the treatment of inebriety as 
a disease, but " cities of refuge" for the drunkard — institu- 
tions in which he may be brought under saving influences, 
strengthened in his good resolutions, and taught that they 
who fight for themselves against vice have all the good men 
and women of the world fighting with and for them. 

The success of these institutions has been very gratifying, 
and a great number of struggling penitents have been by 
their aid safely carried through the period of probation and 
secured against the powerful temptations which assail the 
unguarded soul. Some testimonies concerning their work 
will better show its character than pages of argument. 

One inmate of the Chicago Home writes: " It is now over 
five years since I applied to Mr. Drake for admission to the 
Home. I was then prostrated, both physically and men- 
tally, to that degree that I had scarcely strength enough to 
drag myself along or moral courage enough to look any de- 
cent man in the face. I was often assured that to quit 
whiskey would kill me. I thought there was a probability 
of that, but, on the other hand, there was a certainty that to 
continue it would kill me. I resolved to make one more 
effort and die sober, for I never expected to live — had no 
hope of that. From the day I entered the Home I have 
been a changed man. The encouragement and counsel I 
received there gave me strength to keep the resolution I had 



43 2 THE WHITE ANGEL 

formed, and which I have kept to the present moment — viz. 
To drink no more! Ever since I left Chicago I have held 
a responsible position, and now hold the principal position 
in a house of business, the doors of which I was forbidden 
to enter six years ago. I do not write this in any spirit of 
self-laudation, but simply to lay the honor where it belongs 
— at the door of the ' Washingtonian Home. ' ' ' 

One who had been in the Franklin Home of Philadelphia 
writes as follows: 

1 ' It has now been nearly two years since I left the Frank- 
lin Home. I had been a drinking-man ten years, and it got 
such a hold on me that I could not resist taking it. I had 
tried a number of times to reform, and at one time was in 
the Dashaway Home in California, where they steep every- 
thing in liquor; but when I came out I still had the desire 
to drink, and only kept from it for nine months. 

U I again commenced, and kept sinking lower and lower 
till I lost my friends and felt there was no hope for me. On 
the 31st day of May, 1873, I came to the Franklin Home, 
and have never tasted intoxicating liquor since; which is 
the longest time I was ever without it since I commenced to 
drink. I feel now that I will never drink again, as I do not 
associate with drinking-men or go to places where liquor is 
sold. It was so different at the Home from anything I had 
ever met or heard of that I went away with more strength to 
resist than ever before. When I came to the Home I could 
not get a position in Philadelphia, nobody having confidence 
in me. Since then I have been engaged as foreman in a 
manufacturing establishment by the very man who had dis- 
charged me several times for drinking, and have been with 
him a year." 

A mother of seventy years of age, whose son had been 
rescued by the Home, says: "That man is forty years 
old, and I've been a widow ever since he was a baby, and 



OF THE WORLD. 



433 



I've wept over him often and often, and to-day I've shed 
tears enough to bathe him from head to foot, but, oh! thank 
the Lord, these are such happy tears! " 

A wife testifies : ' ' Some days, these hard times, we have 
enough to eat, and some days we don't; but all the time I'm 
just as happy as I can be. 




Before Reform. 

"I wish you could see my children run laughing to the 
door when their father comes home. Oh, he is another 
man from what he was a year ago; he is so happy at home 
with us now, and always so patient and kind. 

u Do tell me if there isn't something — if it is ever so lit- 
tle — that we women can do for the Home: we never can 
forget what it has done for us." 

28 



434 THE WHITE ANGEL 

These are a few out of many testimonies of the good 
work done in these homes. Since their institution thou- 
sands of drunkards have been reformed by their aid, fully 
one-half of whom are said to have kept their vows. 

Another series of reformatory institutions of the greatest 
usefulness are the inebriate asylums, of which many are 




After Reform. 



now in existence. Some of these are • supported by State 
aid, others are private establishments, but they are all en- 
gaged in a good work of the highest importance. They 
treat inebriety as a disease that needs to be cured by medi- 
cal means as well as by restraint. The superintendent of 
the oldest of these institutions, the New York State Inebri- 
ate Asylum at Binghamton, says: "We believe that little 
can be expected from spiritual aids or pledges or resolves 
unless the patient can so build up his physical strength as 
to sustain them. Give a man a healthy body and brain- 
power, and you can build up his spiritual life; but all 
attempts to cultivate a power that is crushed by diseased 
forces is practically useless. Call it a vice or a disease, it 
matters not; the return to health must be along the line of 

natural laws and means This asylum is a marvel. 

It is, to-day, successful. Other asylums are the same, and 



OF THE WORLD. 435 

we feel that we are working in the line of laws that are 
fixed, though obscure." 

Inebriate asylums have more recently been established in 
England, where their benefit is as marked and decided as in 
America. The diseases treated are classed under various 
names, of which the most difficult to handle is said to be 
the loss of self-respect and a departure of the power of self- 
control. ' ' The cure never places a man back where he was 
before he became subject to the disease ; and he can never, 
after his recovery, taste even the milder forms of alcoholic 
beverage without being exposed to the most imminent dan- 
ger of relapse. ' ' 

Still another important reformatory institution of recent 
times is the Sunday-breakfast association, which has been 
the means of inducing hundreds of drunkards to sign the 
pledge. Though probably the greater number of these 
have failed to keep it, yet there have been many persistent 
converts. It carries out Jerry McAuley's idea of the saving 
powers of roast beef as a preliminary to religious teaching. 

INDUSTRIAL TEMPERANCE. 

There are other important influences of modern times 
tending to the abolition of intemperance of which we may 
fittingly speak at this point. Modern industry and drunk- 
enness are, indeed, to a large degree incompatible. Intem- 
perance has become a partial bar to employment in many 
fields of industry, and an absolute bar in others. This last 
reference is to railroad employes, whose duties are of a kind 
that renders intoxication perilous not only to themselves, 
but to hundreds of others. In consequence, many of the 
railroads now absolutely refuse to employ or to keep in 
their employment persons of intemperate habits. 

The first railroad to adopt a rule of this kind was the Wis- 
consin Central, whose officers in 1883 issued orders for the 



43 6 THE WHITE ANGEL 

immediate dismissal of any employe who might drink even 
beer, whether on or off duty. At first, this stringent order 
created much opposition, yet it worked so well that other 
railroads followed, and the legislature of Michigan has 
since then passed a law forbidding the employment upon 
any railroad of an employe in any grade who uses intoxi- 
cating beverages. This important reform has been adopted 
by leading roads in other sections of the country, and in 
this connection the Railway Age makes the following 
pertinent remarks: "The railways of the United States 
now constitute one of the greatest and most effective tem- 
perance organizations in existence. Practically, they en- 
courage, and most of the companies require,' abstinence 
from intoxicating liquors on the part of their six hundred 
thousand or more employes." 

This reform is of the highest importance to the travelling 
public. u The man who thinks himself perfectly sober — 
the man who has only taken • a couple of glasses of beer ' 
or ' a single horn of summat, ' but who by these means has 
had his pulse raised a few degrees, has been made aggres- 
sive, daring, slightly reckless, yet sufficiently so to make 
all the mischief — is the man to whom many railroad acci- 
dents are due. The clear brain and steady nerve are more 
in request, and these are not compatible with even moderate 
tippling and occasional ' bursts. ' ' ' 

Similar rules have been extended to the shipping inter- 
ests. Mr. Bronson Howard ascribes the beginning of tem- 
perance reform in the lake service to a decided stand made 
by his father in 1830. Mr. Howard, Sr., was at that time in 
charge of a vessel on Lake Erie which, in one of its trips, 
became exposed to a terrible storm. The weather was 
severely cold, and half the crew kept themselves rilled with 
whiskey "to keep them warm." The other half worked 
without this fictitious aid, and the captain soon found that 



OF THE WORLD. 



437 



all his dependence lay in this latter half. The drinking 
part of the crew became unfit for duty, and for many hours 

the storm had to be fought 
short-handed. When the 
struggle ended the cap- 
tain, indignant at what 
had occurred, resolved 
that his vessel in future 
I should be run without 





A Lake Steamer of 1830. 



rum, and began 
operations by set- 
ting the liquor-cask 
on tap and permit- 
ting its precious con- 
tents to flow into the 
lake. The mate 
soon afterward came up for a dram, looked at the dreadful 
waste in silent consternation, and walked away without 
speaking, yet full of "thoughts unutterable." 

On reaching land Mr. Howard announced his resolution. 
It met with ridicule and opposition, but he persisted and 
obtained a sober crew, whom he supplied with much better 
food than was customary, in order to repel the charge of 
meanness. A result which had not been foreseen soon 



438 THE WHITE ANGEL 

appeared. The marine insurance companies gave him dis- 
criminating rates, and ere long his competitors found them- 
selves at a disadvantage. The consequence was a gradual 
growth of temperance on lake vessels. Since that period 
temperance has become the rule, instead of the exception, 
alike in lake, river, and ocean navigation, and the host of 
employes of railroads and ships alike are becoming, in great 
measure, enforced members of the total-abstinence com- 
munity. The same is very generally the case with the 
army and navy, while in many avocations of civil life tem- 
perance has become to a greater or less degree a requisite to 
employment. 

We may close these remarks by saying that the anti- 
drinking sentiment among the industrial classes has gone 
much farther than is here indicated, and that the strongest 
of all the labor associations of the country is making highly 
satisfactory progress toward abstinence principles. It is sig- 
nificant that the regulations of the Knights of Labor, while 
accepting membership from the ranks of the non-laboring 
class, absolutely refuse admittance to any liquor-seller. And 
the leading spirits of the association, particularly its present 
head official, General Master Workman Powderly, strongly 
inculcate temperance among the members. In corroboration 
of this statement we quote from an address issued by Mr. 
Powderly to the members of the association. Mr. Powderly 
says: 

' ' I know I am right. I know that, in refusing to even 
touch a drop of strong drink, I was, and am, right. In re- 
fusing to treat another to that which I do not believe to be 
good for myself to drink, I know that I am right. In not allow- 
ing a rumseller to gain admittance into the order of the 
Knights of Labor, I know I am right. In advising our 
assemblies not to rent halls or meeting-rooms over drinking- 
places, I know that I am right. I have done this from the 



OF THE WORLD. 439 

day my voice was first heard in the council-halls of our 
order. My position on the question of temperance is right. 
I am determined to maintain it, and will not alter it one jot 
or tittle. I know that in the organization of which I am the 
head there are many good men who drink, but they would 
be better men if they did not drink. Ten years ago I was 
hissed because I advised men to let strong drink alone. 
They threatened to rotten-egg me. I have continued to 
advise men to be temperate, aud, though I have had no ex- 
perience that would qualify me to render an opinion of the 
efficacy of a rotten egg as an ally of the rum-drinker, yet I 
would prefer to have my exterior decorated from summit to 
base with the rankest kind of rotten eggs rather than to 
allow one drop of liquid villany to pass my lips. 

" Ten years ago the cause of temperance was not so re- 
spectable as it is to-day, because there were not so many 
respectable men and women advocating it. It has gained 
ground. It is gaining ground, and all because men and 
women who believed in it could not be browbeaten or 
frightened. Take a list of the labor societies of America, 
and the total sum paid into the treasuries from all sources 
from their organization to the present time will not exceed 
$5,000,000. The Knights of Labor is the largest and most 
influential of them all, and, though so much has been said 
concerning the vast amount of money that has been collected 
from the members, yet the total sum levied and collected for 
all purposes up to the present time will not exceed $800,000. 
Now let us turn to the other side. In New York alone it is 
estimated that not less than $25,000 a day are spent for 
drink — $75,000,000 in a year. If I cared more for the praise 
and approbation of labor's enemies than I do for the interests 
of labor, I would remain silent. We are seeking to reform 
existing evils; we must first reform ourselves." 

These words have no uncertain ring. And they must 



44(3 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



carry with them a powerful weight with the persons to 
whom they are addressed, That American mechanics, as 
a, class, will before many years range themselves definitely 
upon the side of abstinence, or at least of great moderation 
in the use of intoxicants, and the grosser forms of intem- 
perate indulgence be confined to persons of foreign birth or 
of a very low grade of society, we can scarcely doubt. 

As to the light in which rumsellers regard their customers, 
we may quote the following story with which we have just 




The Fools' Pence. 



met, and which seems well worth repeating as apropos to one 
interesting phase of our subject: 

A carpenter going home from his work with his tools on 
his shoulder went into a public-house with three pennies in 
his hand ready to pay for a drink. The landlady happened 



OF THE WORLD. 44 1 

to be engaged in chat with a neighbor, and failed to notice 
her customer. He waited a few minutes. The door was 
open, and the sound of a piano came from the house. The 
neighbor remarked: 

' ' You have a piano, I see. ' ' 

' ' Yes, a new one. It cost seventy guineas. My daughter 
is learning to play, and we have engaged one of the best 
musicians in the city to teach her." 

"And you have new furniture?" 

* ' Indeed we have the very best. ' ' 

' ' How do you get all these things ?' ' 

"I'll tell you: it is the fools' pence that got them." 

The carpenter looked at the money in his hand, while new 
thoughts passed through his brain. "Fools' pence!" he 
thought. ' ' They are very well named. Here are three of 
them. But I fancy, madam, you'll get no more of mine;" 
and he turned on his heel and left the room, dropping his 
saved pennies back again into his pocket. 

In the same connection is the following story, in which 
one of the effects of reform is amusingly indicated: 

A man who had signed the pledge for a year and kept it 
faithfully, at the end of that time went into a dramshop. 
The saloon-keeper greeted him heartily, naturally looking 
upon him as one of his strayed sheep returned to the fold. 

' ' What will you have to drink ?' ' he asked. 

" Nothing," answered the man; "I am not drinking." 

" But your year is up?" 

"That's a fact. And what's more, I've got a terrible 
bunch on my side through giving up drink." 

" That's what you might expect. It don't do to knock off 
drink so sudden. You had better try a little old rye if you 
want to get rid of that trouble. If you go on with this fool- 
ishness you'll have just such another bunch on the other 
side." 



442 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



<c 0h, you think so, do you? Well, I hope I will. Here 
is the bunch." He produced and laid on the bar before the 
saloon-keeper's astounded eyes a bag containing fifty silver 
dollars. " It is just as you say: if I start drinking it will take 




BUTVCX 



it away, and if I keep sober I will have another bunch as 
big in a year from now. I reckon, old fellow, I'll take the 
risk and keep sober." 






CHAPTER XX. 

ADVANCES OF TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 

II 7E have, in preceding chapters, reviewed the various 
* » steps of the temperance reform, and described each 
of the successive measures adopted to banish intemperance 
from the land. Reform, like every phase of human prog- 
ress, is always a question of effort and experience. Men 
have always to learn, through successive disappointments, 
the most effective methods of attaining any desired end. 
Personal propagandism in the temperance reform has been 
tried in a multitude of ways, with abundant temporary suc- 
cess, but never with the permanent success desired. Yet 
this method has not been without its useful result. It has 
given rise to a strong and healthy public opinion in favor of 
temperance, and thus has rendered comparatively easy a 
method of procedure which of old would have been next 
to impossible. 

This method is that of legal restraint of the liquor-traffic, 
which has been settled on finally as the most promising 
means of defeating the rum power, while the whole strength 
of the temperance army is being concentrated upon this 
one point. Not that efforts to recruit the army have been 
given up. These are pursued as actively as ever. But it 
has become clearly apparent that the strong columns of in- 
temperance cannot be overcome by inducing desertion from 
their ranks, and that victory can only be gained by an 

443 



444 THE WHITE ANGEL 

assault in force. The ballot-box and trie law are the weap- 
ons of this new assault. 

The recent efforts at legal restraint of the liquor- traffic 
may be classed under several heads — those in favor of high 
license, those providing for town or county prohibition (local 
option), those favoring legislative State restraint, and those 
seeking prohibitory amendments to the State and National 
constitutions. The full story of these legislative proceed- 
ings is an extended one, but its essential features may be 
briefly given. 

There are in this country a number of localities in which 
local option has been for years in operation, American coun- 
terparts of the Saltaire of England and the Bessbrook of 
Ireland. One such locality is Potter county, Pa., in which 
a prohibitory law has been in operation for many years, the 
people defeating every effort to repeal it. As one result 
thereof we may quote from Hon. H. W. Williams, a judge 
of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania: " For the past five 
years the county jail has been fully one-half the time with- 
out any other inmate than the keeper and his family. Twice 
within the' past ten years I have, at the regular terms of 
court, discharged the jury on the second day of the term, 
without its having been called to consider a single case 
of any description. The effect of this system is felt in 
many ways: taxes are reduced; the business of the crim- 
inal courts is greatly diminished ; industry and sobriety take 
the place of idleness and dissipation; and intelligence and 
morality are advanced." 

Other such prohibitive localities are the city of Vineland, 
N. J., the towns of Media, Pa., Millville, N. J., and Greeley, 
Col., and Edwards county, 111. The records of these local- 
ities are similar to those of Potter county. Vineland, a city 
of over ten thousand inhabitants, reports its police expenses 
at seventy-five dollars a year, while the expense for poor 



OF THE WORLD. 445 

relief is practically nothing. A prominent glassmaking 
firm of Millville says: " Prohibition is worth to us as a firm 
at least ten thousand dollars a year in the general regularity 
of the men at their work. ' ' Of Edwards county, 111. , the 
clerk of court reported in 1878: " There has not been a 
licensed saloon in this county for over twenty-five years. 
During that time our jail has not averaged an occupant. 
This county never sent but one man to the penitentiary, 
and that mau was sent up for killing his wife while drunk 
on whiskey obtained from a licensed saloon in an adjoining 
county." 

Much more of the same general character might be quoted 
concerning these localities; and it seems evident that, apart 
from the importance of prohibition as a moral measure, its 
value from a business and governmental point of view is 
enormous. It seems somewhat surprising that many other 
localities have not long ago imitated these happy examples; 
but old institutions are proverbially hard to overthrow, and 
the liquor interest is one of great activity and strength. 
Recently, however, local-option legislation has sprung into 
great prominence, and is spreading over the country with 
extraordinary rapidity. If it continues its present rate of 
increase, it may eventually render State prohibition un- 
necessary. 

As regards State action, the effects of the first wave of 
prohibitive legislation have passed away except in the case 
of four States — Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and 
Iowa. These retain prohibitory laws, but Maine is the 
only State in which there has been a persistent effort to en- 
force them. Recently, however, measures are being taken 
in the other States named to carry their laws into effect, and 
Iowa has been particularly active in this respect. 

In several of the States high-license bills have been 
passed in recent years. These we may briefly describe. 



446 THE WHITE ANGEL 

The Massachusetts prohibitory law, passed in v 1855, was 
repealed in 1868, and replaced with a license law, which 
worked so badly that prohibition of all but malt liquors 
was re-enacted the next year. In 1875 it was again re- 
pealed, and a license law enacted. This law makes several 
classes of licenses, ranging from $100 to $1000 for spirits 
and from $50 to $250 for malt liquors, and provides that 
the bar must be open to unobstructed view from the street. 
In addition, the law contains a local-option feature and lim- 
its saloons to one for every one thousand of the population. 

In Nebraska the prohibitory law of 1855 was superseded 
by a high-license law in 1880, the license-fee being $1000 
for cities of over 10,000 inhabitants, and $500 for smaller 
towns, with privilege of increase by the authorities. In 
Arkansas the license-fee is $700, the State receiving an- 
nually $300 and the county $400. Besides these there are 
other charges ranging from $50 to $200. 

In Illinois a high-license law was enacted in 1883, the 
minimum license for spirituous liquors being fixed at $500, 
which the authorities are privileged to increase as much 
as they please. The minimum for malt liquors is $150, 
with the same privilege. The license fixed for the city of 
Chicago is $1000. 

In Minnesota the license-fee is $500 for cities of less than 
10,000 population, and $1000 for cities of over 10,000, with 
the privilege of increase at the option of municipal coun- 
cils. The law is strict in other respects. Sale to minors, 
to school or college pupils, to habitual drunkards and intox- 
icated persons, and on Sundays is prohibited under severe 
penalties. 

Missouri is another high-license State, the State fee vary- 
ing from $25 to $200, the county fee from $250 to #400. 
In Mississippi the license-fee ranges from $200 minimum to 
$1000 maxinum, the sum charged being optional with the 



OF THE WORLD. 447 

authorities. For towns of over iooo inhabitants the mini- 
mum fee is $300. In Florida the license-fee is $400. In 
Connecticut it may vary from $100 to $500 according to the 
decision of the county commissioners. The penalties for 
selling to paupers, or to drunkards when forbidden by the 
family, are severe. 

In Michigan the license for the sale of wine and beer is 
$300; for spirits, $500, with severe restrictions on sale; 
while a bond of $3000 to $6000 for proper observance of 
the law is required. No sale is permitted on Sundays or on 
legal holidays, or from nine in the evening to seven in the 
morning, unless special permission to keep open till eleven 
in the evening and re-open at six in the morning is obtained. 
No screens of any kind are permitted. If a drunkard when 
arrested tells where he got his liquor, he is set free and the 
dealer prosecuted. Any wife or child injured in person, 
property, or means of support by an intoxicated person 
can sue the dealer or his sureties for damages. This law, 
as will be perceived, is to a certain extent prohibitive, and 
is said to work very well. 

In Ohio the State constitution forbids license, while not 
prohibiting sale. The difficulty thus created has been 
avoided by laying a license-fee under the title of a tax, the 
tax for the sale of spirits being $200, and of wine and beer, 
$100. It has since been made $250 for all liquors. In Mon- 
tana, recently admitted, the license-fees range from $180 to 
$500, according to the size of the town. 

The Pennsylvania high-license law, enacted in 1887, fixes 
the license-fee at $500 for the larger cities, $300 for small 
cities, $150 for boroughs, and $75 for townships. It is very 
strict and severe in its requirements, and is prohibitory to 
the extent that the mere offering of the fee and the neces- 
sary bondsmen is not sufficient to obtain a license, the 
judges of the court of quarter sessions having discretion- 



44-8 THE WHITE ANGEL 

ary powers in the granting of licenses. This condition of 
the law had at first a remarkable effect in weeding out 
many of the law-breaking dramshops in the large cities of 
the State. By using the prohibition in the law the liquor- 
saloons in "Philadelphia were reduced in 1888 to nearly 
one-fifth the number open in 1887. Only those were 
granted license whose record for quietness and observance 
of the law had been good, and there was promise of a 
considerable amelioration of the evil effects of intoxication 
in that city, particularly as the penalties for breaking the 
law are severe. Much interest is felt in the working of 
this new experiment in license, and its effect on intoxica- 
tion as compared with that of State prohibition, which, as 
is well known, has never yet strictly prohibited in large 
cities. What will be the solution of this problem only time 
can solve, though it must be said that Philadelphians have 
no strong expectation of any considerable reduction in the 
"drink bill" of their city. 

The most recent high-license law is that of New Jersey, 
passed in 1888. In this the license-fees range from $250 to 
$100, according to the size of the place. L,ike the Penn- 
sylvania law, it contains a strict Sunday-closing require- 
ment, which promises to be effective, as the punishment for 
its infraction is severe. But its most important element is 
a local-option section, which will in all probability result 
in the enactment of prohibition in several counties of the 
State. 

Vigorous efforts have been made to enact a high-license 
law in New York, and bills passed the legislature in 1887 
and 1888, but in both instances were vetoed by the gov- 
ernor. These vetoes, however, cannot be held to have been 
very injurious to the cause of temperance, since the bills 
passed were by no means radical in their requirements, and 
seem to have been intended "for revenue only." 



OF THE WORLD. 449 

In the States not named low license still prevails, though 
in most of them legal efforts have been made to restrict in- 
temperance. But the laws enacted, not being enforced, have 
been of little utility. It remains to be seen what will be the 
effect of high license in reducing the number of drunkards. 
The evidence concerning it is contradictory, but the balance 
of testimony seems to show that it has as yet had very little 
efficacy in this direction. The strict laws of Nebraska, 
Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania may prove to have 
a considerable value in favor of temperance, but if so it will 
be through the operation of their restrictive and prohibitive 
features, and not as a necessary result of high license pure 
and simple. 

Of the law of Nebraska it may be further said that it 
requires a bond of $5000 to pay damages arising from the 
infraction of the law, while sale to minors, Indians, insane 
persons, or habitual drunkards, or on Sunday or election 
day, is strictly forbidden, and the dealer must pay all dam- 
ages arising from his traffic, support all widows, orphans, 
or paupers produced through the operation of his business, 
and pay all expenses of prosecution. An unique feature of 
the law is that no treating is permitted, any one who treats 
or accepts a treat being liable to fine and imprisonment. This 
peculiar feature also exists in the low-license law of Nevada. 
No one in that State is permitted to treat or give liquor 
gratuitously in a barroom or saloon under penalty of a fine 
of from $4 to $20 and imprisonment for from two to ten 
days. 

Partially prohibitive laws exist in a number of the States. 
Ohio prohibits the sale of liquor within twelve hundred 
yards of an asylum for the insane or feeble-minded; Da- 
kota, within four miles of the State University; Arkansas, 
within ten miles of Arkadelphia College; Rhode Island, 
within four hundred feet of any public school; Mississippi, 

29 



45° THE WHITE ANGEL 

within five miles of many colleges, schools, and churches; 
while sale to minors, to habitual drunkards, on Sunday, 
etc. is prohibited in a number of the States. The most 
peculiar and effective of these partially prohibitive laws is 
the u Four-mile Law" of Tennessee. This makes it illegal 
to "sell or tipple any intoxicating beverage within four 
miles of an incorporated institution of learning in this 
State," while any common or district school may be in- 
corporated by charter. 

It is required, however, that the chartered school shall be 
outside of an incorporated town, and the unexpected conse- 
quence has been that about ofte hundred towns have surren- 
dered their charters, so as to come within the provisions of 
the law. Thus, a measure which seemed comparatively 
harmless in its bearing upon liquor-sellers has been con- 
verted almost into one of State prohibition. Liquor-deal- 
ers have been forced to move from town to town as one 
locality after another came under the provisions of the 
law, and it seems as if they would eventually be driven in 
a body from the State. 

CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 

The form taken by recent prohibitive legislation is that of 
amendments to the constitutions of the several States. In 
this direction some decided progress has been made, some 
of the States having adopted this principle, while others 
have amendments awaiting the popular vote. 

The first State to pass a law of this character was Kan- 
sas. In 1880 the State constitution was amended as follows: 
"The manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors shall 
be for ever prohibited in this State, except for medical, 
scientific, and mechanical purposes." A bill to make 
this amendment effective was passed by the legislature in 
1881. 



OF THE WORLD. 



451 



The amendment, when first proposed, was treated with 
derision, and even voted for as a "good joke" by certain 
persons who never dreamed that it would pass. Yet the 
canvass was very active and exciting. ' ' The various temper- 
ance organizations redoubled their activity. The Woman's 
Christian Temperance Union awoke to new energy and did 
effective work, its speakers visiting the most dangerous dis- 
tricts and communities. In one instance its members went 




A Drunken Cow-boy. 



to a frontier town inhabited mainly by 'cow-boys' — a spe- 
cies of human animal that lives mainly on horseback, makes 
the fiercest of fire-water the staff of life, and considers a 



45 2 THE WHITE ANGEL 

daily fight with, revolvers and knives a necessity of exist- 
ence — where a man attempting to speak on temperance had 
been egged away from the town; but thither woman went, 
delivered her speeches without molestation, and returning, 
was able to report, 'I came; I spoke; I conquered.' " The 
amendment was carried by a majority of 7998. The law 
went into effect May 1, 1881. " In some of the largest cities 
the last night in April was a scene of the most disgraceful 
debauchery, but the next morning saw a general closing of 
saloons, even Leavenworth, the metropolis of the State in 
beer-saloons, as well as in more creditable respects, closing 
almost half its beer- and whiskey-dens, while in some cities 
not an open one was to be found." 

A story is told of liquor legislation in Kansas at an earlier 
date which is worth repeating. The incident in question 
occurred in 1867, during an effort to amend the license laws 
of the State. A temperance convention was being held at 
Topeka, the State capital, whose members were making an 
effort to induce the legislature, then in session, to pass a 
more stringent license bill. Topeka lies on the east side 
of the Kansas River, while the railroad comes in on the 
west side. At that time the river was so swollen that the 
bridge had been carried away, and the temperance dele- 
gates were obliged to cross in boats. The license bill, 
which had been introduced into the legislature at the in- 
stance of these advocates of temperance, showed such evi- 
dent signs of passing that the friends of the liquor-traffic 
became alarmed, and hastily telegraphed to Leavenworth 
the story of the impending danger. Quickly taking the 
alarm, a whole carload of liquor-sellers and their patrons 
set off in all haste from Leavenworth, deeming it of the 
highest importance that the members of the legislature 
should be "seen" without delay. 

They duly reached the depot, full of hope, whiskey, and 



OF THE WORLD. 453 

enthusiasm, but, to their dismay, they found not only 
that the bridge had vanished, but that during the night 
the ice had broken in the Republican Fork River and 
was rushing down the Kansas at a rate that rendered 
crossing impossible. No money could induce a boatman 
to attempt the passage of the raging stream. The baffled 
rumsellers " fumed, raved, and swore worse than a certain 
famous army in Flanders." It was all in vain. There 
'they stood in full sight of the State-House, while the ice 
ran past and the bill went through its several stages with 
large majorities, and was signed by the governor. 

Back went the discomfited liquor-advocates to Leaven- 
worth, while the temperance delegates held a grand jolli- 
fication, "and all went merry as a marriage-bell" — except 
in the Leavenworth train. 

This bill declared that no license should be granted ex- 
cept on petition of the majority of the adult male and 
female population of the district or city ward. It is nota- 
ble as the first enactment according to woman a voice in 
the restraint of that traffic from which she has been the 
severest sufferer. 

The next constitutional-amendment prohibition vote was 
taken in Iowa on June 27, 1882. Here, as in Kansas, the 
women took a prominent part in the canvass. Miss Willard 
says that by 9 A. m. the bells of Iowa called the ' c Bauds of 
Hope" to their appointed rendezvous, while the church- 
bells summoned to prayer and women gathered to devo- 
tional services. Wreaths of evergreens draped the polling- 
places and garlands of flowers encircled the voting-box, 
while the following mottoes were displayed: u For God and 
Home and Native Land!" and "Brothers, Vote to Protect our 
Homes!" The active efforts of the Woman's Christian 
Temperance Union doubtless aided much in securing the 
large majority of 29,759 in favor of the bill. The State. 



454 THE WHITE ANGEL 

has a considerable foreign population, but many Germans, 
Swedes, and Norwegians are said to have -voted for the bill. 

Unfortunately, all this earnest effort was wasted. The 
legislature had permitted clerical errors to creep into the 
bill, which killed it when submitted to the Supreme Court, 
and the people of Iowa were left to ' ' fight their battle over 
again." 

In 1883 a similar amendment was submitted to popular 
vote in Ohio, and carried by a majority of 82,214, yet was 
lost through failure to receive the required " majority of all 
persons voting for State officers." In the next year the peo- 
ple of Maine voted on a like measure, and carried it by a 
majority of 46,972, a very large one for that State. 

The next effort in this direction was made in Rhode 
Island. The original prohibitory law of this State having 
been repealed in 1863, prohibition was re-enacted in 1874, 
and was again repealed the following year. In 1884 the 
legislature adopted as an amendment to the constitution 
the following: "The manufacture and sale of intoxicating 
liquors to be used as a beverage shall be prohibited. The 
General Assembly shall provide by law for carrying this 
article into effect." 

This amendment was adopted in 1886 by the vote of the 
people, with a majority of 5883, but was repealed in 1889 
in favor of license. 

The success thus attained aroused the friends of temper- 
ance generally, and during 1886 the question was brought 
before the legislatures of no less than fifteen States. Seven 
of these State legislatures — those of Connecticut, Pennsyl- 
vania, Michigan, Oregon, West Virginia, Tennessee, and 
Texas — voted by large majorities to submit the question to 
the suffrage of the people. likewise, in the year 1888 the 
legislatures of Massachusetts and New York have passed 
similar bills. 



OF THE WORLD. 455 

In four of the States in which the measure was passed by 
the legislature the amendment came up for popular vote 
during 1887, and was lost in every instance. In Michigan, 
which voted first on the measure, the bill was defeated, with 
an adverse majority of 5935. The vote in Texas was taken 
on the 4th of August, with an adverse majority of 91,661; 
in Tennessee on the 29th of September, with a majority 
against the amendment of 27,733; an ^ i n Oregon on the 
8th of November, with an adverse majority of 7985. The 
adverse vote in West Virginia was given in November, 
1888. In Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts 
the proposed amendments have been since submitted, and 
have met similar popular adverse majorities. Constitu- 
tional prohibitive amendments therefore now exist in four 
States only — Kansas, Maine, and the two Dakotas. 

It may be further stated, to close the review of this phase 
of our subject, that as early as i860 a prohibitory constitu- 
tional amendment was brought before the legislature of New 
York. It was passed by both houses in the session of 186 1, 
but vanished from sight under the clouds of war. In Michi- 
gan, in 1850, a constitutional amendment prohibiting license 
was passed by popular vote, while similar action was taken 
by Ohio in 1851. The laws to sustain these amendments, 
however, proved non-effective, and the sale of liquors is 
now permitted in both States named. 

An effort to amend the Constitution of the United States 
by a prohibitory article was made by Hon. Henry W. Blair 
of New Hampshire in December, 1876. In this proposed 
amendment the manufacture and sale of spirituous liquors 
were to be prohibited after the year 1900, but beer and wine 
were exempted. It has since been offered in the Senate, of 
which Mr. Blair is now a member. Bills for total prohibi- 
tion have been offered by Senator Plumb of Kansas and 
Representative White of Kentucky. At present the tern- 



456 THE WHITE ANGEL 

perance party is exerting all its strength in favor of such an 
amendment to the National Constitution as the only means 
to avoid the many difficulties which surround the enforce- 
ment of State prohibition. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE LIMITATIONS OF LOCAL OPTION. 

^HE measures in favor of local option seem more prom- 
A ising than those favoring State prohibition, if we may 
judge from the rapidity with which this method of restriction 
has spread in recent years. The principle, indeed, has been 
adopted so widely in some States as to amount almost to 
State prohibition. And it is remarkable that this is par- 
ticularly the case in the South, a region which used to be 
looked upon as a stronghold of dram-drinking. No pro- 
hibitory law has been passed by a Southern State, but the 
u Four-mile Law" of Tennessee and the local-option laws 
of Georgia and some other States have rendered these States 
to a considerable extent prohibitive. 

Laws of this character are, indeed, to some extent neces- 
sary as defensive measures in the South. The large negro 
population of that region with its excitable temperament 
renders the free use of whiskey dangerous. This is clearly 
seen by all long-sighted men, and many Southerners who 
are not personally opposed to the liquor-traffic advocate its 
abolition as a measure of precaution. They justly hold that 
the uneducated negro, if set on fire by strong drink, might 
prove a highly dangerous element of the community. This 
feeling played an active part in the recent efforts at prohib- 
itory legislation in the South, which met with the strongest 
opposition from the negroes, the defeat of constitutional 
prohibition in Texas and Tennessee having been due to the 
adverse negro vote in those States. The temperance reform 
from the first has made notable progress among the better 
classes of that section of the country, and the moral ele- 

457 



458 THE WHITE ANGEL 

ment of the problem is very far from being absent from the 
Southern mind. 

The story of local-option legislation in the States may be 
given in brief. 

The first local-option law to be passed was that enacted by 
Kansas in the year 1867. The passage of this bill was the 
occasion of the liquor-sellers' discomfiture already described. 
It recites "that no license shall be granted to any individ- 
ual to sell intoxicating liquors within the State until the 
party applying for the license shall present to the proper 
authorities a petition for the same signed by a majority of 
the adult citizens, both male and female, of his district, or, 
if in a city, the ward in which he proposes to engage in the 
business." 

In 187 1 the New Jersey legislature passed a bill giving 
local-option privileges to several townships. This privilege 
was extended to others in 1873. A local-option law was 
passed by Pennsylvania in 1872, but was subsequently re- 
pealed. The New York legislature passed a similar law, 
applicable to towns only, in 1872, but this was vetoed by the 
governor. The Connecticut license bill of the same year 
contains a local-option provision. 

In 1873 several States took similar action. Maryland 
passed a bill giving local option to certain counties and 
districts. Kentucky passed a general local-option bill, 
under which a vote was taken in two hundred and fifty- 
nine towns, of which two hundred and seven voted against 
the sale of liquor. North Carolina, Mississippi, and In- 
diana passed similar bills, that of the latter State being 
soon afterward repealed. Alabama refused to pass a gen- 
eral law, but granted the local-option right to many towns, 
and subsequently to several counties. Tennessee passed a 
strong law, but it was killed by the governor's veto. 

In 1874, Oregon passed a local-option bill, and Georgia 



OF THE WORLD. 459 

prohibited the sale of liquor in forty different counties un- 
less two-thirds of the property-holders should agree thereto 
in writing. In 1875, Massachusetts passed a bill granting to 
the local authorities of towns and cities the privilege of giv- 
ing or withholding licenses. 

In 1877 a peculiar liquor law was adopted in Virginia. 
The State levied a tax of two and a half cents on every 
drink of spirits and half a cent on every drink of beer, and 
required that every drink should be registered by a bell- 
punch in street-car fashion. High expectations were enter- 
tained of financial prosperity from this measure, and Louis- 
iana and Texas passed similar bills. But it quickly proved 
that bartenders could beat car-conductors in doctoring the 
punch; the revenue from it rapidly decreased, and it was 
soon abandoned. 

The years 1881 and 1882 were marked by very active 
liquor legislation. Some measure favoring prohibition was 
considered in nearly every State of the Union. In Massa- 
chusetts a prohibitory law very nearly passed. In Connect- 
icut the local-option law was made more stringent. General 
local option was defeated in New Jersey and Delaware, but 
the county local-option provisions were extended in Mary- 
land, and fifteen of the twenty-four counties of the State 
came under prohibition. In Virginia the judges were given 
discriminating power in granting licenses. The legislature 
of North Carolina passed a prohibitory law, which was 
afterward submitted to the vote of the people and rejected. 
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana 
passed more or less prohibitory local-option laws. Arkansas 
passed a bill giving local option to the inhabitants residing 
within three miles of any institution of learning. In 1882 
sixty-two of the seventy-five counties of that State voted 
against license. Kentucky in 1882 refused to enact a gen- 
eral law, but passed many local prohibitive bills. Since 



460 THE WHITE ANGEL 

that date other States have enacted local-option laws. The 
high-license law of Illinois contains a local-option feature, 
since it provides for prohibition on the petition of the major- 
ity of voters of any county or township. Recently, Missouri 
and Michigan have passed bills providing for county local 
option, and Ohio for township local option. Similar laws 
exist in West Virginia and New Jersey and in the Territory 
of Dakota. 

All this indicates an extraordinary strength in the prohib- 
itive sentiment at the present day. Six States — Maine, New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Iowa, and Kansas — 
strictly prohibit all manufacture or sale of liquor within 
their territory. Constitutional amendments to the same 
effect are pending in several other States, while a number 
of others have enacted stringent high-license bills. Many 
of the States have passed local-option bills, and these have 
been taken advantage of to a most encouraging extent. 

Of the local-option States, the first to be named is 
Georgia, since in this State the sale of liquor has been pro- 
hibited in one hundred and eighteen out of its one hun- 
dred and thirty-seven counties, thus amounting to nearly 
complete State prohibition. In Kentucky over forty coun- 
ties and many towns and districts are under prohibition. 
In Arkansas, West Virginia, Mississippi, and Florida two- 
thirds of the territory is under prohibitory law, and more 
than half of it in South Carolina and Alabama. Prohibi- 
tion also exists in large districts of Virginia, Tennessee, 
North Carolina, and Missouri, and in many counties of 
Maryland, while in the North many towns of Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut, and Illinois, and counties of Michigan 
and Dakota, have "gone dry." In 1888 thirty-three coun- 
ties of Michigan adopted prohibition, but this action has 
been negatived by the Supreme Court of the State, which has 
declared the local-option law unconstitutional. During the 



OF THE WORLD. 46 1 

same period Missouri " went dry " in forty-nine counties out 
of eighty-two voting, and in thirteen towns out of twenty. 

The local-option counties include several State capitals, 
embracing the cities of Atlanta, Ga., Raleigh, N.C., and Jack- 
son, Miss. Of these, Atlanta is a city of considerable size, 
having more than sixty-five thousand population. The law 
there has been since repealed, but the size of the city ren- 
ders its effect while in operation a matter of interest and 
importance. Rev. Theodore L,. Cuyler thus describes his 
experience there: U A gentleman of my congregation has 
been staying for six months at the Kimball House. He is 
a retired merchant, a very wide-awake, earnest, keen-eyed 
man. He knows the South, for he has lived there. He 
met me at the station, and as he walked with me to the 
hotel he said, 1 1 have studied this thing for myself; I know 
it, and I assure you from my own personal observation, 
though I have never been engaged in the temperance 
cause, that prohibition in this city is a complete, indis- 
putable success. Of course, liquor is brought in from 
towns on the line of the various railways in which there 
is no prohibition — Griffin and Greenville and what are 
called u wet places." Those who wish to have it in their 
houses may import it by the jug or keg, and there is some 
drank there; still, the open saloon is a thing of the past.' 
I talked with a colored student in one of the universities 
of the South, and he said, ' You will have an opportunity to 
see for yourself while you are in Atlanta. Drinking among 
my people in Atlanta is almost obsolete; not having the 
temptation of the barroom, our colored people cannot find it, 
and they have come not to want it; the change in the habits, 
tendencies, and desires of our people has been most wonder- 
ful in that city since the extinction of the dramshop." 

Recently the prohibitive law of Atlanta has been repealed, 
and a $1000 high-license law substituted. As one result of 



462 THE WHITE ANGEL 

this change, we are told that the arrests for drunkenness and 
disorderly conduct during three months under high license 
have been 1457, as compared with 879 for the same period 
under prohibition. 

It has not been sought in the foregoing pages to give the 
minor details of temperance legislation in the several States. 
We need but say here that Sunday-closing and u civil-dam- 
age ' ' laws have been passed in many States, while in some 
States all temperance legislation has been defeated. As a 
whole, the victories of the temperance cause have been 
sufficiently numerous and important to hold out great hopes 
for the future of this reform. The advocates of temperance 
have learned highly useful lessons during their sixty years' 
experience, and, though the moral-suasion method has 
been by no means abandoned, the legal-restriction system 
has become generally adopted as the only rapid method of 
bringing the reign of intemperance in our land to a decisive 
termination. 

It is necessary here to speak of two important recent de- 
cisions of the Supreme Court of the United States which 
bear directly upon the question of the enforcement of State 
prohibition. A suit was brought in 1887 by the brewers 
of Kansas against that State, on the plea that they had been 
illegally deprived, by the operation of the prohibitory law, of 
the use of their property. The court decided against them, 
declaring that they had not been deprived of any actual 
property, and that no one had the right to use his property 
in furtherance of what the law declared to be a nuisance. 

This decision is highly favorable to the enforcement of 
prohibitory law, but a decision rendered on March 19, 1888, 
has an opposite bearing. This was on an appealed case 
from Iowa, whose prohibitory law forbids the introduction 
of liquor into that State for sale, and the Chicago and 
North-western Railroad had, in consequence, refused to 



OF THE WORLD. 463 

transport it thither. The case was decided adversely to 
the law, the court declaring that under the Inter-State Com- 
merce bill no railroad company can refuse to transport goods 
which are permissible articles of commerce under the laws 
of the United States. This renders it possible to introduce 
liquor into the States in despite of the State law; and when 
once there the difficulties of sale thereof become very much 
reduced. This decision has produced a strong feeling in 
favor of working for national prohibition. 

TEMPERANCE IN POLITICS. 

In the early days of temperance legislation no distinct 
political issue was made, action being confined to the pres- 
sure of public opinion on the several State legislatures. 

Action in favor of a Prohibition party was taken in 1867 
and 1868 in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio, 
and in 1869 the Right Worthy Grand Lodge of Good Tem- 
plars, in session at Oswego, N. Y. , issued a call for a nation- 
al prohibition convention. Previous to the meeting of the 
convention (September 1, 1869) a State Prohibition party 
was organized in Ohio and a full State ticket nominated. 
The national convention was attended by nearly five hun- 
dred delegates, adopted a strong temperance platform, and 
organized a "National Prohibition Party" pledged to work 
for the entire suppression of the traffic in intoxicating 
drinks. 

In February, 1872, a convention was held in Columbus, 
O., for the nomination of Presidential candidates, the 
ticket chosen being — for President, James Black of Penn- 
sylvania; for Vice-President, Rev. John Russell of Michi- 
gan. The second nominating convention assembled at 
Cleveland, O., in May, 1876, and selected Hon. Green 
Clay Smith of Kentucky as candidate for President, and 
Hon. G. T. Steward of Ohio for Vice-President. In June, 



464 THE WHITE ANGEL 

1880, the third convention assembled, also in Cleveland, 
and nominated Hon. Neal Dow of Maine for President, 
Rev. H. A. Thompson of Ohio for Vice-President. The 
fourth convention assembled at Pittsburg, Pa., on May 21, 
1884. The nominations announced were Hon. John P. 
St. John of Kansas for President; Hon. Wm. Daniel of 
Maryland for Vice-President. The fifth convention was 
held at Indianapolis, Ind., on May 30 and 31, 1888. Gen. 
Clinton B. Fisk of New Jersey was nominated for 
President; Dr. John A. Brooks of Missouri for Vice-Pres- 
ident. In 1872 the total Prohibition vote was 5608, princi- 
pally cast by Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. In 1876 
the votes numbered 9759, from seventeen States. In 1880 
there were cast 11,640 votes, some few of them by Southern 
States, though the Gulf States yet kept aloof. 1884 showed 
a remarkable change. Nearly every State in the Union now 
cast its quota of Prohibition votes, and the total ran up to 
the promising amount of 151,070. In 1886 the Prohibition 
party ran a separate State ticket in twenty-five of the States, 
with a total vote of 286,314. 

This presents a very favorable showing for the future of 
the party in view of the fact that the great majority of the 
temperance men of the country ignored the ticket from fear 
of throwing away their votes, and the parallel fact of the 
marked development of prohibitive sentiment within more 
recent years. The party has passed the period of insig- 
nificance, has become a disturbing element in the political 
situation, and is beginning seriously to affect the equanim- 
ity of the existing party organizations. The temperance 
vote is rising like a cloud on the political horizon, and 
threatens to sweep away all existing conditions with its 
rainfall of cold-water ballots. 

In opposition to the Prohibition party there exists an or- 
ganization known as the " Beer-Brewers' Congress," formed 



OF THE WORLD. 



465 



in 1862, and annually holding sessions in different cities of 
the country. This association is a political as well as a trade 
organization, one of its purposes being to oppose l ' the prog- 
ress of the prohibition cause;" another, to resist "taxation 
that would cripple the beer trade." 

Considerable legislation in favor of the beer interests has 
been gained through the action of this association, and its 
opposition to the temperance cause has been bitter and 
decided. The efforts to popularize lager beer have been 
persistent, and have certainly had a remarkable measure of 
success. Some of the arguments in its favor, given by a par- 
ty of legislators after a visit to a large brewery in Boston, 
were the following, instigated by a grand feed and a super- 
abundance of foaming beverage. One speaker remarked, 
** I am almost too full for utterance '," but u I think lager beer 




Too Full for Utterance. 



is doing more for temperance than are the laws. ' ' He claimed 
that a five-cent loaf and a quart of beer were of more benefit 
to a man than three five-cent loaves and a pot of tea. Others 



30 



466 THE WHITE ANGEL 

decided that beer was a great institution for the temperance 
cause and the interests of Massachusetts, and hoped that it 
might become the popular drink of New England. 

In addition to the Beer-Brewers' Congress, other combina- 
tions of liquor-sellers have been from time to time formed, 
and nearly every State has its local associations banded 
against prohibition. "The Constitutional Defence Asso- 
ciation of America" was organized in 1886, with its head- 
quarters in Philadelphia and officers in all the principal cit- 
ies of the Union. In October, 1886, a convention of distillers 
and brewers and of wine-, spirit-, and beer-dealers met in 
Chicago and organized the ' ' National Protective Associa- 
tion." This assesses every distiller, brewer, and dealer ac- 
cording to the amount of his business, with the purpose of 
raising funds for a bitter fight against prohibition. At the 
same time it may be remarked that the Prohibition party is 
now exceedingly active, and promises to poll a heavy vote 
in the coming Presidential election. The armies of liquor 
and no-liquor are marshalled and in the field, and the great 
battle at the ballot-box is fully under way. 

PROHIBITION ABROAD. 

The prohibitory legislation in the United States has been 
paralleled in Canada by a marked activity in the same direc- 
tion, under what is known as the "Scott Act." This is a 
bill introduced into the Canadian Parliament in 1878 by 
Hon. R. W. Scott, the enactment of which forms an import- 
ant era in the history of temperance in Canada. Its legality 
has been fully tested by the supreme courts of the provinces, 
and an appeal against it which was carried to the judicial 
committee of the Privy Council of Great Britain has been 
defeated. It stands at present, therefore, as the established 
local-option law of Canada. 

Under its provisions one-fourth of the electors in any city 



OF THE WORLD. 467 

or county may petition for the privilege of a vote on license 
in said city or county. If a majority vote be cast against 
license, prohibition is adopted and must remain in force for 
at least three years. 

The need of such a law seems very evident, if we may 
judge by the rapidity with which it has been put into effect. 
At present in nearly half the counties of the whole Do- 
minion from Nova Scotia to the region beyond Manitoba 
liquor-selling stands prohibited by the votes of the people. 
Prohibition of sale to the Indians in all the Canadian reser- 
vations and in the vast territory of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany has long been rigidly enforced. 

If we consider the state of affairs on the other side of the 
ocean, no equal progress of the general or local prohibitive 
principle can be found in any country, with the exception of 
Sweden. In England an effort to pass a local-option bill in 
Parliament has been diligently but vainly made for more 
than twenty years. ■ 

In 1864, Sir Wilfred I^awson brought a u permissive bill ' * 
into the House of Commons. Year after year efforts have 
been made to carry it through, yet it remains to-day among 
the u unfinished business" of that notable body. In 1879 
there was offered a local-option resolution, which likewise 
failed in two sessions, but was passed by the new Parliament 
of 1881. Confirmatory motions have been carried since, and 
the general election of 1885 gave a large majority in favor 
of local option. Yet the existing Parliament seems to have 
been too deeply occupied with other prominent questions to 
give the necessary attention to temperance legislation, and 
the permissive bill has not yet been reached. It has gained 
such strength, however, that it cannot be left much longer 
on the waiting list. 

As we have previously said, local prohibition has been 
attained in many districts of England, Ireland, and Scot- 



468 THE WHITE ANGEL 

land through proprietary action. In addition to those 
already named this principle had been adopted by 1869 in 
fourteen hundred and fifty-six parishes of the province of 
Canterbury, containing two hundred and thirty thousand 
inhabitants. It obtains also in numerous parishes elsewhere 
in Great Britain and Ireland. With the existing strength 
of the temperance sentiment it cannot be doubted that 
the passage of the permissive bill would be* followed by 
a very widely-extended adoption of local prohibition in 
Great Britain. 

Elsewhere in Europe — as in France, Belgium, Holland, 
Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and Russia — the 
temperance reform is arousing much interest, while it is in 
active development in China and Japan and many islands of 
the Pacific and Indian oceans. In Africa efforts have been 
made to protect the natives from the ravages of strong drink 
furnished them by soulless traders; and throughout the 
world, indeed, the temperance cause " is moving steadily 
onward. 

Yet America still continues the centre of its rapid devel- 
opment. The only active measures in favor of temperance 
in Europe are those existing in Great Britain and Sweden. 
Intemperance is on the increase in most of the other coun- 
tries of Europe, but we can with some reason hope that 
ere long its intolerable burden will be so severely felt as 
to rouse the moral section of the population to strenuous 
efforts for its abolition. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

PROHIBITION WILL PROHIBIT. 

\ II 7HETHER Prohibition does prohibit is a question of 
* * very considerable interest, and has excited abundant 
debate, pro and con. , with little indication of an early settle- 
ment of the controversy. The dispute belongs to that pecu- 
liar class of problems in which each side of the argument 
seems so strong that the reader who confines himself to 
either side must deem it definitely settled in favor of that 
side, while he who reads both is apt to find himself in a 
quandary, and cannot help thinking that one or the other 
of the contestants must have seriously deviated from the 
truth. 

Yet to examine the question more closely is to find that 
the argument is one that may readily present two strong 
sides. Prohibition does prohibit — in certain localities and 
at certain periods. Prohibition does not prohibit — in other 
localities and at other periods. Such seem the true answers • 
to the query, and the arguments appear to have been based 
very largely on local instances. 

So far as present indications go, local-option laws are car- 
ried out better than State prohibitory enactments. Such we 
might naturally expect to be the case. When a town or 
county adopts prohibition, it is in consequence of a very 
strong local anti-license sentiment, and the majority of the 

inhabitants will take a lively interest in the support and 

469 



470 THE WHITE ANGEL 

execution of the law. When a State adopts prohibition, 
there can scarcely fail to be many localities of anti-prohi- 
bition sentiment, so that the law, while easy of enforcement 
in some districts, may prove very difficult in others. 

Again, the question of time is an important one in this 
consideration. The first passage of such a law is likely to 
throw the liquor-dealers into a state of dismay and to cause 
a hasty retreat, while the officers of the law are as likely to 
be roused to a strong sense of duty and to become actively 
vigilant. A similar vigilance will also be manifested by the 
citizen advocates of the law. Hence, when a prohibitory 
law is first enacted, whether it be local or general in cha- 
racter, it is very apt to be enforced with considerable vigil- 
ance and completeness. 

But as time passes new elements of the situation come 
into play. Liquor-sellers recover from their temporary dis- 
may, devise schemes by which the law may be evaded, and 
smuggle liquor into localities where there is a sufficient de- 
mand to justify the risk. At the same time, the vigilance 
of law-officers and the direct interest of citizens are likely 
to diminish, the continual struggle with law-breakers grows 
wearisome, and to some extent the secret infraction of the 
law is winked at. Eventually, in many cases, the law be- 
comes more or less of a dead letter, the officials desist from 
efforts to execute it, the public grows careless or tolerant, 
and liquor may emerge from its secret caverns to the light 
of day and be sold openly in defiance of the law and its 
officers. 

Such has been the experience in every State that has yet 
passed a prohibitory law — even in Maine, where the law is 
most stringent and the support of it most earnest. In the 
cities of Bangor and Portland to-day the Maine liquor law 
appears to be somewhat openly defied, and rum and beer to 
be ready for any one who will take the trouble to ask for 



OF THE WORLD. 47 1 

them. Yet that this fact indicates the failure of the Maine 
law cannot be affirmed. Bangor and Portland and the other 
places in which liquor is thus sold constitute but a portion 
of the State. In the small towns and villages and in the 
country districts the law is admitted to be very effectively 
enforced, and temperance prevails in Maine to a much 
greater extent than might be supposed from the statements 
of those who have observed certain localities only and 
ignored the remainder of the State. This view of the 
case applies with equal force to other States in which pro- 
hibition is the law, and, though nowhere has liquor been 
absolutely banished, yet in all such localities the amount of 
drunkenness, with its bodyguards of crime and disease, has 
been very sensibly diminished. 

The actual condition of affairs, now and formerly, in the 
prohibition districts can be best shown by the evidence of 
eye-witnesses, and to this evidence the remainder of the 
present chapter will be devoted. 

In regard to the State of Maine, the statements on record 
are so numerous and lengthy that we shall not ask the reader 
to examine them in detail, but shall confine ourselves to 
their salient points. In 1881 the Torojtto Globe sent two 
intelligent reporters to Maine for the purpose of making a 
general examination of and a thorough report upon the 
workings of the law. One of these gentlemen was a Pro- 
hibitionist in sentiment, the other an anti-Prohibitionist. 
The report of the former was very much in favor of the 
law; that of the latter, from which alone we quote, showed 
a condition of affairs in many respects satisfactory. His 
conclusions are as follows:. 

"That in the cities the law has been a partial failure, so 
far as uprooting the traffic or even the suppression of open 
bars is concerned. 

"That this failure has been greatly exaggerated by quot- 



472 THE WHITE ANGEL 

ing exceptional places or periods as typical of the whole 
State, and by the ingenious perversion of statistics. 

" That, neverthelesss, even when laxly administered, the 
law has decreased the volume of drinking, and done much 
to make the practice unpopular and disreputable. 

' ' That by the admission of both parties it has driven all 
respectable men out of the traffic. 

" That the facilities for drinking are not presented in such 
a form or under such surroundings as to tempt those who 
have not acquired the drinking habit to do so. 

"That in the rural portions of the State the Maine law 
has suppressed open drinking and reduced secret drinking 
to a minimum, and may, therefore, be considered as effect- 
ive as any other measure on the statute-book. 

"That the class of liquor-sellers who defy the law are the 
same class of men who, under a license system, would sell 
liquor without license. 

"That too much has been claimed for prohibition, which 
of itself will not remove poverty, want, and degradation, 
which are frequently brought about by other causes than 
rum." 

Others of his conclusions are — that abstinence has pro- 
duced general prosperity, good order, and comfort, though 
those results are partly due to general moral progress; that 
the best elements of society strongly favor the law; that 
political influences have aided its infraction; and that thirty 
years' experience has created so strong a public opinion in 
its favor that no political party dares to oppose it. It is 
now the fixed policy of the State. 

A statement of later date, and from an English source, 
occurs in a letter written by Mr. Duncan S. Miller, con- 
ductor of a company of Bell-Ringers, to the Alliance News 
of Manchester, Eng. He tells an amusing story of some of 
the devices of the liquor- favoring fraternity: 



OF THE WORLD. 473 

"A few days ago our engagements brought us for the first 
time into the State of Maine. Being all of us Alliance- 
men, we were most interested in coming to Portland, the 
metropolis and head-quarters of the Maine liquor law. We 
had not left the station one hundred paces before we were 
brought up in astonishment in front of a drinking-shop, in 
whose windows were bottles impudently ranged and labelled 
' Cognac Brandy,' and others ' Hennessy's Gin.' Inside was 
every apparent drinking appliance. Twenty steps more, 
and another similar one met our astonished gaze, advertis- 
ing lager beer and stout. Could it be that we saw double 
or that the much-vaunted Maine law was a dead letter? 
Puzzled and bitterly disappointed, we went to deposit our 
1 material ' at the City Hall, and on entering its ground-floor 
we beheld, with amazement, twenty-three great beer-casks, 
full to the bung, these, of course, awaiting storage in the 
cellars beneath. Never was faith more tried. We couldn't 
believe what we saw, and began to doubt and mistrust all 
things mundane. Later I tackled a gentleman at the hotel 
tea-table, and, quite prepared to hit him hard about the fal- 
lacy and figment of prohibitory laws, referred sarcastically to 
the barrels under the very City Hall itself. 

u 'Yes,' said he, 'those are barrels of beer seized by the 
sheriff and awaiting condemnation by the commissioners, 
when they will be emptied in the sewer and the barrels sold. ' 

" I do admit I began to feel I had been sold too. ' How 
about those liquor-shops and bottles ?' said I. 

' ' ' The shops are bogus, and the bottles probably filled 
with water, or, if real spirits, they dare not open them or 
"break bulk." You could only get non-intoxicants if you 
went inside.' 

" Sold again! Another lesson in Sir Wilfred's art of not 
prophesying unless you know, and a confirmation of the 
axiom, 'Don't jump at conclusions.' 



474 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



" Later still, our business took us by train from St. John's, 
New Brunswick, to Boston. At McAdam Junction, the last 
stop before entering the State of Maine from British soil, 
the agent of the refreshment-room came into the car and 
called out, i Last place to get a drink, gentlemen, for many 
hours.' (By drink, of course, he meant beer or spirits.) 
Many rushed out, and a party of three young men returned 
with large flasks of liquor. We did not see this consumed, 




The Maine Traveller's Satchel. 



as, knowing they were transgressing, they took it by turns, 
during the seven hours we were travelling in Maine, to enter 
the retiring-room of the car, never failing to come out either 
wiping their mouths or ' licking their gills.' All this, then, 



OF THE WORLD. 475 

shows ' there is really something in it.' I feel there is a lot 
in it. Suppose it can be shown that in a dozen places in 
this big city drink can be got in an underhand, surreptitious 
manner; that does not prove the law is a failure, but the ne- 
cessity for secrecy proves the power of the law. L,et us have 
the same advantages in Old England that they have here. ' ' 

As to the methods adopted for the illicit sale of liquor in 
Maine, we may quote from the Portland Express: 

"In one saloon the reporter found an innocent-looking 
sink. No one would think for an instant that anything 
besides harmless Sebago water ever came from that faucet. 
A workman with a dinner-pail in his hand came into the 
saloon. He walked up to the bar, and, laying down his 
pail, requested the bartender to fill it. The dispenser of 
liquid walked over to that identical sink and filled the 
pail with foaming beer from that faucet. 

' ' In another the barkeeper was bringing forth beer from 
■a hole in the wall back of the counter. Suddenly a watcher 
rushed in and cried, ' Here dey cum!' Presto, change! In 
an instant the hole in the wall was covered with a picture 
of Washington crossing the Delaware. Glasses were thrown 
down a trap-door into the cellar, and when the deputies en- 
ter the smiling clerk is busily engaged in selling cigars. 

4 ' There is another where the customer sees only a cigar- 
counter and no person in charge of it when he enters. At 
the end of the room is a blank partition with a hole about 
six inches square in it, and a smaller peephole about a foot 
above. The customer walks to the hole, calls for his liquor, 
lays down his money on a shelf beneath the aperture. A 
hand takes the money and sets out the drink. That hand is 
all the- customer sees. ' ' 

What has been thus exposed concerning the operations 
of the law and the devices of its enemies applies equally to 
other Prohibition States. 



476 THE WHITE ANGEL 

In the Fairbanks scale-works were five hundred men bus- 
ily engaged at very trying labor, ' ' but I am told that these 
five hundred workmen really never taste a drop of either 
beer or gin. Their drink is water, their delight is tea. 
' These men, ' I ask, ' who rake the furnace, who carry the 
burning metals, and who stand about the crucibles, — can 
they go all day without their beer?' — 'They never taste a 
drop, and never ask to have a drop. There is a can of water 
near them; they like the taste of water better than the fumes 
of* ale, and do their work more steadily without such fumes.' 

"In fact, I find that these intelligent craftsmen are the 
warmest advocates of the prohibitive liquor law. They 
voted for it in the outset ; they have voted for it ever since. 
Every year of trial makes them more fanatical in its favor. 
Party questions often turn on these liquor laws, and these 
intelligent workmen always vote for those who promise to 
extend their operations. 

' ' ( You see, ' says Col. Fairbanks, ' we are a nervous and 
vehement race. Our air is dry and quick, our life an eager 
and unsleeping chase. When we work, we work hard; when 
.we drink, we drink deep. It is natural that when we ab- 
stain, we should abstain with vigor.' " 

This favorable showing does not apply to all parts of the 
State. There are localities where liquor is sold with a cer- 
tain degree of freedom. Yet if the liquor statistics of Ver- 
mont be compared with those of non-prohibition States, the 
reduction in sales appears very marked. Connecticut in 1870 
paid, per capita of population, ten times as much liquor-tax 
as Vermont. 

Concerning the operation of the prohibitory law of 
Kansas we have the following testimony from Governor 
Martin in his annual address of January, 1887: "A great 
reform has certainly been accomplished in Kansas. Intem- 
perance is steadily and surely decreasing. In thousands of 



OF THE WORLD. 477 

homes where want and wretchedness and suffering were once 
familiar guests, plenty, happiness, and contentment now 
abide. Thousands of wives and children are better clothed 
and fed than they were when the saloons absorbed all the 
earnings of husbands and fathers. The marvellous material 
growth of the State during the past six years has been ac- 
companied by an equally marvellous moral progress, and it 
can be fairly and truthfully asserted that in no portion of 
the civilized world can a million and a half of people «be 
found who are more temperate than are the people of 
Kansas. ' ' 

Senator Ingalls of the same State, himself not a Prohi- 
bitionist, said in February, 1888: " Prohibition is so rigidly 
enforced in Kansas that there is not an open dramshop or 
1 saloon ' from the Missouri River to Colorado. ' ' He says 
that there is some illegal sale, but adds : ' ' My disbelief 
in prohibition probably renders me a more disinterested 
observer of its results, and I do not hesitate to say that, 
though attended with some deplorable tendencies, it has been 
of great advantage to the State, both morally and from the 
material and economic standpoint. Very few of its citi- 
zens would willingly return to the dominion of the dram- 
shop with its attendant crime, disorder, and social misery. 
Whether the people would prefer prohibition to high-license 
I am not sure, but between prohibition and free whiskey 

they would be practically unanimous for prohibition 

Many intemperate men have been redeemed; the weak have 
been fortified; the young have been saved from temptation; 
the families of the poor have been better clothed, fed, and 
educated; and the social condition has been perceptibly 
elevated. The grocery-merchants and other dealers say 
that their bills are more promptly paid, and the records of 
the courts show a marked decrease in debt and crime. The 
predictions of its opponents have not been verified. Immi- 



478 THE WHITE ANGEL 

gration has not been repelled nor capital averted from the 
State. The subject is fast assuming national interest and 
importance. ' ' 

In the words of another writer, "It is true some liquor is 
sold on the sly; so horses are stolen and men are murdered, 
while we have a law against each; but we now have liquor- 
selling, horse-stealing, house-burning on a level, and the 
thief, murderer, burglar, liquor-seller, and liquor-maker 
rank alike as violators of legislative law.'' 

Of Rhode Island, when it was living under Prohibition, 
Governor Wetmore said in his 1887 address : "All things 
considered, I think it may fairly be said that as good re- 
sults have been obtained in its enforcement as could have 
been reasonably anticipated; and as an evidence of this I 
may cite the official record of the police departments of the 
cities of Providence and Newport, whose statements, which 
I assume to be correct, indicate a large reduction of drunk- 
enness and of that class of disorder and misery which intox- 
icants provoke and stimulate." 

Of a Prohibition State of much longer standing, Iowa, 
Governor I^arrabee says, in a letter dated April, 1887: "In 
eighty out of ninety-nine counties of the State prohibition 
is enforced, and in the remaining nineteen counties it is 
partially enforced. No property has been depreciated by 
its enforcement, as saloons make room for better and more 
legitimate business. The enforcement of the law has had 
no noticeable effect upon the people beyond causing a re- 
moval from the State of some incurable dispensers and per- 
haps incurable consumers. The effects of prohibition on 
the general welfare and habits of the people are decidedly 
wholesome." It is further stated that in fifty-five counties 
of Iowa there was not a single person committed to the 
county jail during 1886. 

In respect to the States in which local-option prohibition 



OF THE WORLD. 



479 



widely prevails a few statements will suffice. There is no 
occasion to multiply testimony where it is all of one com- 
plexion. An inhabitant of Denton, Maryland, writes: 
"There is not a drop of alcoholic stimulants sold in this 
county, and the contrast between the past and the present 
is a wonder to those accustomed to behold the scenes of only 




The Last Prisoner. 



a few years ago and now. Instead of wrangling, black eyes, 
and bloody noses, enmity and strife, drunken brawls and 
midnight debauchery, we have a peaceful and quiet com- 
munity here and throughout the entire county. At the late 



480 THE WHITE ANGEL 

sitting of the grand jury for this county there was not a 
single case of assault and battery before them nor a single 
complaint of a violation of the public peace. Our jail is 
without a tenant, and has been for the past six months." 

Another writer says: "In one county the jail had long 
been empty, when an aged negro appeared before the magis- 
trate and swore that he was unable to support himself. He 
was sent to jail as a vagrant, and the sheriff gave him the 
key. He came and went as he pleased. He was the only 
occupant and his own jailer. I heard myself of another 
county whose jail stood empty for months at a time. The 
sheriff was accustomed to lock his vacant cells and retire 
to his farm." 

Kentucky yields the following testimony as to the effect- 
iveness of prohibitive law. Judge Bartlett of Trimble 
county some time ago refused to grant any licenses for 
that county, declaring "that in eternity no rumseller 
should- hold up his license and say, ' Here, Lord, is my 
authority, signed by the county judge of Trimble county.' 

"Now mark the result: To-day there is not a criminal 
case on the docket of Trimble county, not a criminal in the 
jail, not a pauper in the county, not a licensed barroom. 

( ' Men ask what good will a prohibitory law do ? Look 
at Anderson county, with its two whiskey-murders in one 
week ; look at Jefferson county, with its forty or fifty mur- 
ders a year, and five hundred and thirty-seven arrests in one 
city in the month of June last; look at Pulaski county, with 
her ten whiskey-murders recently; look at Scott, with her 
docket crowded ; and then look at Trimble county, free from 
crime, and say whether you will put your hand into Judge 
Bartlett' s against the license system or in favor of it." 

The ' * United States Brewers' Association ' ' say of the 
effects of prohibitory law these things: "The Association 
is opposed by a dangerous foe, who with a display of means 



OF THE WORLD. 48 1 

and power not only endeavors to hinder the development of 
our trade, but threatens utterly to destroy it." 

From year to year afterward resolutions were passed bit- 
terly to oppose these "fanatics," and to support no candi- 
date, of whatever party, who had any leanings toward total 
abstinence. In 1874 the president of the society advised: 
"Repeal your present laws — they are useless; encourage 
and foster malt liquors and light wines, for they are the 
true medium of temperance. 

"Urge upon your legislatures to abolish all prohibitory 
laws, and instead pass healthy license laws. Instead of 
condemning and prosecuting the saloon-keeper, punish the 
drunkards, refuse to recognize them as gentlemen, debar 
them from all society, disfranchise them at the polls, con- 
demn them to sweep the streets of your city with chain and 
ball fastened to their feet. Make drunkards criminals, but 
not the honest producers and purveyors of a necessity of 
life." 

In short, be as severe as you please with the drunkards, 
but let alone the honest " purveyors of a necessity of life " 
who have made these drunkards. It might have been well 
to call a convention of drunkards and find what they had to 
say in answer to this peculiar declaration of rights and priv- 
ileges. 

As to whether prohibition prohibits or not, we may judge 
somewhat from the proceedings of the Brewers' Association 
in 1875, in which the president's declaration that "prohibi- 
tion has failed and will ever fail," was followed by some 
damaging admissions in a speech by Mr. Schade. 

"Very severe is the injury," he remarked, "which the 

brewers have received in the so-called temperance States. 

The local-option law of Pennsylvania reduced the number 

of breweries in that State from 500 in 1873 to 34-6 in 1874, 

thus destroying 154 breweries in one vear. In Michigan it 
31 



482 THE WHITE ANGEL 

is even worse, for of 202 breweries in 1873, only 68 remained 
in 1874. In Ohio the Crusaders destroyed 68 out of 296. In 
Indiana the Baxter law stopped 66 out of 158. In Maryland 
the breweries were reduced from 74 to 15, some few of those 
stopped lying in those counties in which they have a local- 
option law. We sincerely hope that the Maryland Democ- 
racy, which had yielded too much to the woman Crusaders, 
will take an early opportunity to eradicate that unjust law 
which permits the people of a portion of the State to be put 
under the tyranny and despotism of those fanatics. 

' l There is no doubt that the temperance agitation and 
prohibitory laws are the chief cause of the decrease com- 
pared to the preceding year. Had our friends in Massa- 
chusetts been free to carry on their business, and had not 
the State authorities constantly interfered with the latter, 
there is no doubt that instead of showing a decrease of 
116,583 barrels in one year, they would have increased at 
the same rate as they did the preceding year." 

All this does not look as if the association of brewers 
considered prohibition a failure. If they wish to convince 
the people of this, they had best carefully avoid all such 
dangerous weapons as figures. It is easier to settle the 
matter by persistently declaring that ' l prohibition does not 
prohibit." 

As a fair flash-light photograph of the average prohibition 
situation in the State of Iowa may be related the following 
incident : 

Rev. Sam Jones was riding upon a railway-train in Iowa, 
and fell into conversation with some of his fellow-passengers 
concerning the status and effects of Prohibition in that State. 
Some very excellent results of the law were mentioned, but 
suddenly a very portly passenger, of unmistakable national- 
ity, spoke up and declared : 



OF THE WORLD. 483 

' ' Dot prohibition law ish der grandest farce vot vas effer 
berpetrated on any peebles !' ' 

" What makes you think so?" queried Mr. Jones. 

1 ' Because I know dot. All dem trains vot coom agross 
der Shtate lines brings more liquor, unt a man can get so 
much drunk ash he bleese, unt der Shtate don't get enny 
refenue from dot drunk, too !" 

' ( That must be a very good state of affairs for the liquor- 
dealers," said Mr. Jones. 

" Vot mecks you tink dot?" quickly asked the German. 

''Because," replied Mr. Jones, "if they can sell more 
liquor now, and can also save the heavy license fees, it stands 
to reason that they should prefer the prohibition law." 

"Veil, I don'd know so mooch about dot!" dubiously 
responded the other party. 

"Oh, I thought you knew all about it," said Mr. Jones. 

"J reckon I do know. Don'd I live twelf years in dot 
Shtate mineself ? But just now I go right away from dot 
Prohibition Shtate; dot's vot's der matter." 

"Where are you going?" persisted Mr. Jones. 

"I go down by Illinois. I got a nice place down dere 
vere I can go back in pizness agin." 

"What business were you in up here?" 

' ' Who ? Me ? Up here ? Oh, h 1, I kept a shaloon !' ' 

Strong desire is a bad master. And when it is now rag- 
ing through the land in a conflagration of death, consuming 
manhood, blighting womanhood, and threatening the de- 
struction of home and state, our first duty is to extinguish, 
if possible, the whole system of the traffic. 

Whether high license, under laws of proper stringency 
and with an honest endeavor of the authorities to execute 
these laws, will prove a suitable engine to extinguish the 
fire of intemperance, remains to be shown. Wherever tried 
hitherto, it seems to have been a failure, either through de- 



434 THE WHITE ANGEL 

relictness in the authorities, imperfection of the law, or an 
incurable evil in the whole principle of license. Where 
prohibition has been tried there is no question that it has 
proved satisfactorily effective in many localities. Where it 
has not done so, the fault in part lies with the authorities, in 
part with the ease of concealment of liquor in large cities, 
and the great difficulty in procuring evidence against the 
law-breakers, in part with the United States excise law, 
which permits transportation and sale in bulk. 

Great as these difficulties are, none of them are insuper- 
able. The secret dispensers of liquor in prohibition cities 
labor under a singular disadvantage, which renders their 
business a dangerous one and often leads to its detection, 
however deftly hidden. It would oftener do so did not the 
law-officers wilfully close their eyes and ears. This is the 
fact that their customers, though willing enough to do so, 
cannot be trusted to conceal the perilous mystery. Despite 
their efforts, the secret will ooze out at every pore of their 
bodies. Rum has a thousand tongues, and silence to it is 
impossible. The drunkard tells his story in every move- 
ment, in every word, in every look; and, though the man 
who sold him his rum may bury his business ten fathoms 
beneath the earth's surface, he sends out his living signs to 
reel through the open streets and exclaim in every move- 
ment, "There is good old rye to be had, 'on the sly,' not 
far away." This good old rye is a terrible tongue-loosener, 
and often lets out the rumseller's secret even while his boozy 
customer is doing his best to keep it intact. 

There are many amusing anecdotes on record of the way 
in which rum reveals its presence, of which, as a relief to 
the serious tone of the present chapter, it may not be amiss 
to quote one or two instances at this point. The story is 
told of one gentleman who, coming home late at night and 
4 'half seas over," consulted with his inner self how best to 



OF THE WORLD. 485 

conceal this unlucky fact from his good lady, of whom he 
stood somewhat in awe. An idea struck him which he at 
once proceeded to put into execution. 

" His wife was asleep, and the problem might have solved 
itself had not the boozy fellow been too full of his scheme 
to let her sleep on. With drunken wisdom he woke her out 
of a sound slumber to ask, in as sober a tone as he could 
command, "Say, Susan, where' 11 I find the milk? I want 
a drink of milk 'fore I go to bed." 

"It's on the cellar-way shelf," replied his wife, somewhat 
surprised at this request. 

Down stairs he stumbled, fumbled about vainly in the 
dark for a while, and then called up again: 

" Where' d you say the milk was?" 

"On the cellar- way shelf, I told you." 

He searched around again, getting out of temper as he 
stumbled over chairs and flattened his nose against door- 
posts. At length, considerably vexed, but striving to appear 
cool, he called up stairs, 

"Susan!" 

"Well?" 

" Sure that milk's on the shelf?" 

' ' Yes, of course it is. ' ' 

"Well, then, is it tied up or is it layin' round loose?" 

The cat was now decidedly out of the bag. The good 
wife did not need any further evidence as to how her thick- 
brained husband had spent the evening, or any better point 
for a Caudle lecture. 

His confusion of ideas was little less than that of the 
inebriate who stopped at his house-door with his boon com- 
panion, and rang and rapped till he brought his wife's head 
to the window. 

( ' Who is it making all that racket ?' ' she demanded shrewdly. 

"Dmino — hie — jis' who 'tis. Smith and Jones is both 



486 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



down here, but they's got sort o' mixed. Jis' you — hie — 
down and 



jis' you come 

pick out Jones, ' cause Smith 

wants to go home." 

We have another instance 
of this tale-telling charac- 
teristic of the bottle in the 
following narrative: 

A man who had recently 
become a votary to Bacchus 
returned home one night in 
an intermediate state of 
booziness; that is to say, 
he was comfortably drunk, 
but perfectly conscious of 
his condition. Knowing 
that his wife was asleep, he 
decided' to attempt gaining 
his bed without disturbing 
her. He reach- 
ed the door of 
the room with- 
out much dis- 
turbance. Here 
he paused and 
reflected, and it 
struck him that 
if he could safe- 
ly reach the bed- 
post all would 
go well. Un- 
fortunately, a 
cradle stood on smith and Jones 

the floor between him and the goal of his journey. 




OF THE WORLD. 487 

" Coming in contact with this piece of furniture, over it 
he pitched in perfect booziness. Rising again, and striv- 
ing to gain a position of equilibrium, he pitched backward 
over the cradle in an equally summary manner. Again he 
struggled to his feet, and went head-foremost over the bower 
of infant happiness. At length, with the fifth fall, his pa- 
tience became exhausted, while the obstacle remained yet to 
be overcome. In desperation he cried out to his sleeping 
partner: 

" ' Wife! wife! how many cradles have you got in the 
house? I've tumbled over five a' ready, and here's another 
afore me.' 

"It will suffice to say that he brought on his devoted 
head a curtain lecture that was in its way as bad as the 
cradles. ' ' 

That ' ' murder will out " is an old proverb which does not 
always hold good in practice. That "whiskey will out" 
might be offered as a companion proverb, and one which 
proves itself in a much greater percentage of instances. It 
is quiet and secret enough, indeed, in its legitimate home, in 
the bottle, but in its illegitimate home, the brain and body 
of the toper, it proclaims its presence to every one who 
passes. 

As a further instance of this fact we may quote the fol- 
lowing story: Two gentlemen imbibers, somewhat top- 
heavy, were on their way home from ' ' the lodge. ' ' It was 
a bright moonlight night, and one of them called the atten- 
tion of his comrade in this fashion to Luna's brilliancy: 

"Did y'ever shee the sun zhine brighter?" 

"The sun, you fool! Zhat's th' moon." 

" Sh'pose I don't know zhe sun from zhe moon?" 

" I shay it's the moon." 

The dispute went on till, finally, they agreed to leave it to 
the first man they should meet. Coming across an individ- 



THE WHITE ANGEL 

ual a few minutes afterward, they propounded to him the 
momentous problem. He braced himself on his legs, pushed 
back his hat, and looked up at the shining luminary with a 
puzzled aspect of face. After a minute or two of observa- 
tion, he replied, 

u Dunno, gen'lem; guess you'll have to 'scuse me: I'm a 
stranger in the place." 

The same point may be illustrated by the following anec- 
dote: 

Two students who occupied separate beds in the same 
room came home one night much the worse for their pota- 
tions. They got to bed the best way they could, but, as it 
happened, both into the same bed. The following colloquy 
ensued: 

"How're you gettin' on, Bob?" cried one. 

" First rate, 'cept that there's another chap in my bed. 
How're you?" 

u Why, it's queer, but there's a fellow in my bed too." 

"Then let's kick 'em both out." 

At it they went, until one of them was landed in the mid- 
dle of the floor. 

"How're you gettin' 'long now, Bob?" 

"Why, I've kicked my man out. How're you prog- 
ressin'?" 

" Not very salubrious. My man has kicked me out." 



[Li* y» ft n n 



TF°TT 



.V II III g=3 




3 x=yg^fi mi n r 



1 HI Vi H Ml 1IL ii-^ 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



7^£" PRESENT STATUS OF THE CONFLICT. 



/^\NE of the serious features of this subject which the 
^-^ American citizen is called upon to consider is the organ- 
ized character of the liquor traffic. It has learned by obser- 
vation and the experience of other like iniquities in times 
past the virtue of presenting a solid front against its oppo- 
nents. It has therefore adopted the sentiment, "In union 
there is strength. ' ' In the United States it has a national 
organization which is compact, courageous, and corrupt. 
Subordinate to this general organization are like associations 
of liquor-dealers in every State in the Union where they have 
a foothold. These latter are again subdivided into county 
and city organizations, and the whole trade is thus made a 
vast army of occupation and resistance. They occupy terri- 
tory which is not their own, because, by the common law of 
the land, this country is dedicated to temperance and sobriety. 
They strenuously resist every effort for their dislodgment and 
banishment, and claim that they have a warrant in the doc- 
trine of "personal liberty " for all of their nefarious business. 
This doctrine, however, has recently, and we hope finally, 
been exploded by the Supreme Court of the United States. 
The decision that " no man has a najtural or constitutional 
right to sell liquor " in this country has effectually established 
the truth which temperance-men have so long been declaring ; 
that is, that the right to sell liquor is simply a permissive 

489 



490 THE WHITE ANGEL 

right, that it does not inhere in the conditions of citizenship, 
and that no man may claim such a privilege except as a favor 
from a complaisant community. Surely, after such a decis- 
ion, so plainly announced by the highest court in the land, 
we should hear no more of that fiction of the politicians and 
the liquorites known as l 'the personal-liberty argument 
against Prohibition. ' ' 

It is a question that may one day become as prominent as 
it is important, whether these combinations of liquor-dealers, 
having the purposes which they so boldly express, are not 
unlawful and criminal ? 

When the Ku-Klux Klans of the South were organized for 
the purpose of nullifying certain laws of Congress, that body 
by solemn enactment declared the Klans criminal organiza- 
tions, and set about to suppress them, using both the civil 
and the military arms of the Government. Now, in times 
of ordinary peace these liquor-dealers throughout the land 
are more solidly organized than were the Ku-Klux Klans, 
and for identically the same purpose. They advertise openly 
that they propose to nullify, as far as possible, all laws made 
to suppress their traffic; that they will pool their interests and 
their money to defend their associates in the most flagrant 
violations of said laws; that they will use money and intim- 
idation to debauch the suffrage and to bribe legislation. 
Recent events have shown that they are willing to resort to 
assassination, arson, dynamite, and wholesale murder. In 
no other country would such a combination with such pur- 
poses be tolerated as it is in this. It is not only possible, but 
very probable, that the time is not distant when the people 
will turn their attention to these combinations; and when 
they do there will be a fearful day of reckoning for these 
braggart outlaws and defiant debauchers. 

In some parts of the Union they have boldly defied the 
authorities to enforce the laws. In Cincinnati a large meet- 



OF THE WORLD. 49 1 

ing of the city saloon-keepers passed resolutions boldly noti- 
fying the mayor that they did not propose to obey his procla- 
mation commanding them to close their saloons on the Sab- 
bath day. It was only when Governor Foraker authorized the 
mayor to use all the force at his command to vindicate the 
statute that these brazen fellows slunk behind their barred 
doors and gave an enforced respect to the law. 

In Milwaukee a German newspaper coolly, in its editorial 
column, informed the authorities that there were fourteen 
thousand armed and equipped Germans in that city ready to 
resist to the blood any endeavor to enforce the Sabbath-clos- 
ing law against the saloons of the city. 

These are only specimens of the work these liquor associa- 
tions are organized to undertake. In other localities similar 
difficulties have been encountered in the enforcement of the 
like laws, and it is a growing question how long the patience 
of the American people will tolerate these things. 

It is one of the significant features of this conflict between 
the law and the saloons that the lawless element is largely 
made up from the foreign contingent of our population. The 
prominent element in the liquor traffic in this country is made 
up of foreigners who are engaged in the trade. It is said that 
two-thirds of the distillers, seven-eighths of the brewers, four- 
fifths of the wholesalers, and five-sixths of the retailers of 
spirituous and malt liquors in the United States are foreign- 
born. These figures sufficiently account for the opposition 
which is made to every endeavor to curtail the license of the 
liquor traffic. It comes from men whose past associations 
have not been such as to make them friends of that sort of 
liberty which flows from wisely-adjusted constitutional and 
statute law. They have mistaken license for liberty, and 
now insist upon enforcing their own interpretation, rather 
than abide the old-established American idea which has been 
dominant from the beginning of our system. It is contended 



492 THE WHITE ANGEL 

by some superficial people that we ought to respect the desires 
of those foreign people and refrain from enacting prohibition 
laws, in deference to the education and habits which they have 
acquired in their foreign homes. There is no force in such an 
argument, because we are not bound to legislate for the pro- 
tection of the vices or vicious habits of any class of immi- 
grants to our country. We are rather the more bound to 
legislate strenuously against these things, and by the educa- 
tive and restraining influence of prohibitory laws furnish to 
them a more perfect way of life and the larger liberty of man- 
hood. On this subject I had occasion not long ago to speak' 
certain things which I here reproduce and reiterate: 

" But we are told that we ought not to adopt Prohibition, 
because of our German fellow-citizens; we are told that they 
have been reared on the beer-drinking habit, and educated 
to regard the use of the beverage as an inalienable natural 
right. Let us grant that both of these statements are true, 
and yet they argue nothing worthy to be considered in this 
contest. The German who has sought to obtain citizenship 
with us is no longer a German. (A voice, u That's right!") 
The process that makes him an American citizen denational- 
izes him as a German and strips him of every right to plead 
his German origin, German training, and German prejudices 
against the spirit of American institutions and the trend of 
American civilization. (Applause.) If, after having re- 
nounced his Fatherland and sworn loyal allegiance to our 
Constitution, he still remains a German at heart and seeks to 
use his new-found powers to subvert Americanism in favor 
of his transplanted German ideals, he has deceived his great 
benefactor, the Government of the United States; he is little 
less than a perjurer and his conduct leads toward treason. 
(Applause.) I do not s believe that the majority of our Ger- 
man fellow-citizens mean to occupy such an attitude. They 
must recognize that such conduct is an offence to good con- 



OF THE WORLD. 493 

science and true patriotism. The intelligent German, fleeing 
from the tyrannies of his Fatherland, finds with us a welcome 
as broad as the continent, homestead bounty larger than many 
a Deutscher dukedom, and a manhood of freedom and per- 
sonal sobriety ofttimes exceeding his immediate comprehen- 
sion. Made a joint-heir with us in all our envied powers and 
privileges, equity, duty, and gratitude demand that he should 
cast off his German prejudices and become a vigorous Amer- 
ican patriot. (Cheers of approval.) He should learn the 
great truth that the rights to which he is entitled here are 
the rights conferred by our Constitution, and not the rights 
that were born with his German nativity. ('Good!' 
'That's true!') When our German-born fellow-citizens 
protest against any proposed legislation, they must protest as 
Americans, not as Germans. (Cheers.) We owe no heed, 
no duty, no consideration to ' Germans ' in the conduct of 
our internal affairs. (Repeated cheers.) And if our fellow- 
citizens who were born in Germany insist that we shall treat 
them as Germans, they must not feel aggrieved when they 
are looked upon as aliens, and therefore natural enemies to 
our distinctively American interests. (A voice, ' That is 
what they are.') 

" No, my friend, I do not believe it. (Applause.) I know 
they love their beer and their ancient customs, of which beer 
is largely the life, and that, to their notion, social concourse 
minus beer would seem like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet 
himself left out. (Laughter.) I know that many even claim 
that beer is essential to German life and character, but that 
is purely a national fetich, and not a national or natural fact. 
God made the Germans before the Germans made beer. 
(Laughter and cheers.) I have that fact from the mouths of 
good Germans who know all about themselves. (Laughter.) 
I do not agree with the man who declared that ' while beer 
is quite harmless to the German stomach, it is almost always 



494 THE WHITE ANGEL 

fatal to the human stomach. ' (Great merriment. ) That God 
made the German people after the order of Adam, capable 
of all the virtues, including sobriety, I am quite sure. That 
they are so peculiarly constituted that they cannot subsist 
without brew-pots and beer is a lie. Thousands of them do 
so subsist, and are almost always the noblest and holiest of 
their race. I know many of them who are cultured gentle- 
men, splendid patriots, and exemplars of Christian character. 
They are both examples and warning to their countrymen, 
for if a thousand Germans can live and thrive without beer, 
then all Germans can do the same. Therefore, this conten- 
tion as to German necessity for beer is not only a contempt- 
ible lie, but a cur-in-the-manger claim that needs to be 
strenuously stamped out from our national life. There are 
so many excellencies in the best types of German character, 
that may be profitably conformed to the American system 
of liberty and civilization, that I protest against the further 
propagandism of this slander against our German fellow- 
citizens. In America they have every incentive, and should 
receive encouragement, to throw off what has been vicious 
in their Fatherland training, and to rise to the full develop- 
ment of that sturdy and sober freedom which they are capa- 
ble of exercising in so many ways valuable to their adopted 
country. (Applause.) There are no types of industry so 
pronounced and productive as those to be found among our 
German-born fellow-citizens. There can nowhere be found 
more splendid evidences of self-sacrificing heroism than men 
of German origin have shown in furtherance of American 
freedom and American national autonomy, counting from 
Baron Steuben of the Revolution to Schurz and Siegel of 
the Civil War. (Great applause.) 

"The names of Germans shine with fadeless lustre upon 
the rolls of American statecraft, art, literature, and indus- 
trial progress. Our German contingent has given to us 



OF THE WORLD. 495 

Christian champions as loyal to Christ and as ready for cru- 
cifixion as Luther himself. (Continued applause.) I repeat, 
then, that while America welcomes the leaven of their good 
qualities, she must defend herself jealously against the license 
preached by those among them who are the apostles of the 
grosser appetites. ' ' 

Another feature of more recent importation is the large 
extent to which English syndicates have become interested 
in the brewing industry in this country. They have pur- 
chased brewery properties all over the Union to the value of 
many millions of dollars, and have enlisted in the defence of 
their investments men of large influence in political, legal, 
financial, and journalistic circles. They are already claim- 
ing that they stand upon a peculiar ground which cannot be 
invaded by Prohibition statutes. They hold that their prop- 
erty in breweries cannot be destroyed without compensation, 
because they are aliens and entitled by international comity 
and precedents to protection of a more particular character 
than could be claimed by native citizens. Of course this 
contention is not valid, and would not stand for a moment 
in any honest court of justice, but is simply thrown into the 
discussion as a dust-bomb to blind the public eye and con- 
fuse the fighters against their iniquitous trade. 

The real effectual weapon of defence which the liquor 
traffic has in this country is that balance of political power 
which it is possible for a very meagre minority to obtain 
wherever the great parties are nearly evenly divided. By 
the skilful and unscrupulous use of the votes which their 
influence can command and hold solidly in leash the traffic 
has been able in many places to coerce the dominant party 
and procure protection and enlarged privileges. With the 
liquor traffic there is no hesitation in declaring that they 
regard the interests of their business superior to all public 
considerations. The convention of the " New York Wine, 



49 6 THE WHITE ANGEL 

Beer, and Liquor-Dealers' Association " of the State of New 
York, held at Buffalo in 1888, resolved as follows : "That 
we hold protection to our business and property as higher 
than party allegiance. ' ' And there are a thousand instances 
which might be quoted from the publications of the liquor- 
men corroborating this statement of their attitude. They 
have everywhere announced that their platform is, " First 
the trade, and then politics." This being their plan of 
campaign, and having found it highly successful wherever 
they have exploited it, it is to be presumed that they will 
continue to more vigorously use it in the future. There is 
but one way, apparently, to offset this action on the part of 
the liquor-dealers; and that is for every true temperance- 
man, whatever his party preferences may have been in the 
past, to join now with his fellows of like mind and serve 
the same sort of notice on the politicians : to wit, that with 
ns it shall be from henceforth Prohibition first, and then 
politics ! 

It is well understood that the politicians seek to justify 
the licensing of the liquor traffic upon the idea that it is 
necessary to do so in the interest of revenue. This is but a 
pretext and a subterfuge. The real truth with reference to 
the revenue claim is that so long as a community tolerates 
saloons it will need all the revenue, and more than, it can 
get from them to partially repair the damage they do. But 
as soon as saloons are abolished the need for such revenue 
from them begins immediately to diminish, and very speedily 
disappears. So that the man who pleads for the revenue is 
simply pleading for the saloon, while those who fight the 
saloon are fighting the evils which flow from the saloon 
and make the revenue necessary. 

The cry of the liquor-men is that they are doing patriotic 
work, and therefore are entitled to license and privileges, in 
that they are furnishing the larger part of the money with 



OF THE WORLD. 497 

which the Government is paying its pension list. If this 
claim is true, it is the best argument they have for immun- 
ity. If the people of the United States cannot reward their 
dependent veteran heroes without getting the money there- 
for from this organized system of debauchery, then let us 
all go on a grand, patriotic, universal ' • drunk ' ' until the 
last pensioner is dead and buried ! Verily, we are redeem- 
ing the pledge of the war-time song : 

" We'll all get stone-blind drunk 
When Johnnie comes marching home!" 

The laws of many of our States, wherever they deal with 
the liquor evil, are dictated by liquor-men. This has been 
notoriously true in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Nebraska, 
and some other Western States of later formation. It is a 
foul disgrace to the Christian civilization of the country 
that the burly brewer and distiller should, in such places, 
have become the dictators of the legislation which touches 
their vile and destructive commerce. 

The results of this liquor dictation, and of the u fool 
ideas ' ' of many temperance reformers as well, are seen in 
the incongruous and inoperative statutes upon the law-books 
of the States. Many of the absurdities of temperance legis- 
lation are so flagrant as to excite deserved ridicule. But I 
only cite one instance to show how the ' ' friends of temper- 
ance ' ' mix matters, to their own confusion and the merri- 
ment of their enemies. Take the cases of Massachusetts 
arid Georgia. In the former State it is the law that no 
saloon shall supply liquors to its customers except while 
sitting at tables and ordering food. In Georgia the saloons 
are required to have no tables or places for sitting down to 
eat and drink, and customers must stand up at the bar and 
receive and consume their beverages in that style. In both 
States the argument for the law is the same — i. e. that it 



49& THE WHITE ANGEL. 

tends to diminish drinking ! In other words, it diminishes 
drunkenness in Massachusetts when you drink while sitting 
down, but it diminishes drunkenness in Georgia only when 
you are compelled to stand while drinking. 

Such statutes, squarely contravening the one the other in 
methods and supporting philosophy, are a confusion to the 
arguments of true reformers, and only emphasize the need 
for union in the ranks of the enemies of the liquor evil and 
harmony in demands upon legislation. 

The recent experiences of the States in which the ' t high- 
license ' ' schemes have been pressed have fully demonstrated 
the futility of all regulating devices operated by law. There 
is a growing sense that the claims for high license have prin- 
cipally developed into high lies, without any sense! The 
temporary benefits which come from the first rigid enforce- 
ments of the law are quickly dissipated by the ingenuities 
of the trade and the laxity of zeal which can often be most 
mysteriously produced among the officials who have the law 
in charge. It cannot be much longer until all of those con- 
servative people who have held to ' ' the restrictive idea ' ' 
will abandon it and come over to the side of God and expe- 
rience. That side is the one massed about the principle: 
4 ( The only way to regulate the liquor traffic is to extermi- 
nate it! " 



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CHAPTER XXIV 



A REVIEW OF ANTI-ARGUMENTS. 



r I ^HKRB are a great many good men who are zealous for 
-*• "the American idea" who are seriously convinced 
that Prohibition, as a policy, is in contravention to the gen- 
eral principles and promises of our governmental system. 
In other words, they say that it is " un-American ' ' to seek 
to curtail the rights and privileges of citizens by dictating 
to them in the matters of eating and drinking, or of bargain- 
ing and trafficking generally in spirituous and malt liquors. 
They say that these articles are everywhere admitted to be 
subjects of commerce, and that the free use of them should 
not be hindered because a few people are found to abuse them. 
This, of course, is an argument ad hominen, having the 
sound of a large liberality, and pleasing to the ears of the 
political mass-meeting. The truth is, however, that this is 
a false conception of the attitude of the American Govern- 
ment toward the problems of civilization. The ancient 
philosopher said, u Nothing human is foreign to me." In 
like manner, to the American system nothing is foreign 
which makes for the righteousness of the nation and the 
happiness of the people. 

It is true that we have a written Constitution, within the 
limitations of which all of our legislation, State and National, 
must proceed. But this Constitution is not a Procrustean 
bed to which all philanthropic measures must be rigidly 
conformed, even at the expense of mutilation. 

499 



500 THE WHITE ANGEL 

In order that it may be made clear, in this place, that the 
prohibition of the liquor traffic is essentially an American 
idea, rather than an un-American piece of tyranny, let us 
look into the constitutional right of the nation and the States 
to deal with the liquor traffic, even to the extent of total 
abolition. 

First. The Constitution of the United States confers 
power upon Congress u to provide for the general welfare." 
I am not unmindful that a certain school of politicians say 
that this clause does not warrant legislation not expressly 
indicated by the Constitution. They complain that this 
general provision has already been given an elastic interpre- 
tation that threatens the integrity of the line of demarcation 
heretofore recognized between Federal and State jurisdictions. 
We contend that the Constitution is in no danger from a 
righteous construction of this same clause. A constitution 
without sufficient inherent flexibility to justify the conserva- 
tion of the public welfare under conditions that could not, 
by any prescience, have been specifically anticipated, would 
be a mockery to civilized people and paralyzing to their 
every progressive energy. 

Secondly. If to reach this liquor evil with absolute nation- 
al prohibition does actually require the amendment of the 
Federal Constitution, then there is no doubt of the right of 
Congress to propose such amendment or of the right of the 
people to demand it and to ratify it. There is no ground 
for an argument over this proposition. It is a self-evident 
American truth. 

Thirdly. The right of Congress to forbid the importation 
of liquors, to prohibit the inter-State transportation of the 
same, and to refuse to give national authority and connect 
the national revenues with the evil traffic, are all undeba- 
table propositions. Only an ignoramus or a professional 
rascal will brazenly contradict them. 



OF THE WORLD. 50 1 

Fourthly. The States severally are sovereign over this 
traffic within their jurisdictions by virtue of their reserved 
police powers. This right has been established beyond 
question by the repeated decisions of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, covering the period from 1847 to 
1889. Every phase of the contention submitted to its 
adjudication has been consecutively decided in favor of 
the right and power of the State to absolutely control and 
effectually to prohibit the liquor traffic. 

Fifthly. The State, by its functional organism, has the 
right to thus abolish, criminalize, and impose sufficient 
penalties upon the traffic, and can do this by immediate 
legislation, without referring the matter to a specific ver- 
dict from the body of the people. 

These are the constitutional rights of the nation, the 
States, and their legislatures. Laying aside all other con- 
siderations of the right in the matter, whether in the 
domains of common morals, political economy, or religious 
obligation, the completeness of the authority of the Gov- 
ernment, in all forms and everywhere throughout the 
Union, to deal summarily and destructively with the mon- 
strous liquor traffic must stand fully confessed. Our only 
and whole demand is that this authority be everywhere 
promptly and fully exercised. 

Has the liquor traffic any rights that the Government or 
the people are bound to respect? 

Emphatically and eternally, No ! 

In the decision of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, recorded in 5 Howard^ s Reports, Justice McLean 
declared : ' ' No one can claim a license to retail spirituous 
liquors as a matter of right." 

This decision has recently been reiterated in a most 
emphatic manner in an opinion delivered by the Supreme 
Court as at present composed. The particular case was 



502 THE WHITE ANGEL 

that of one Christensen, who had kept a bar-room in San 
Francisco. In 1889 his application for a retail license was 
refused. He went on selling without a license, and was 
arrested. A writ of habeas corpus having been sued out, 
he was discharged by the United States Circuit Court, on 
the ground that the San Francisco ordinance made Chris- 
tensen' s business dependent upon the arbitrary will of 
other persons, and so far forth denied to him the equal 
protection of the laws. 

This decision of the Circuit Court has now been reversed, 
and in rendering its decision the court, delivering its opin- 
ion through Justice Field, enumerates general principles of 
the highest importance. 

In the first place, the court recalls the fact that the pos- 
session and enjoyment of all personal rights and privileges 
are subject to restrictions which may be necessary to protect 
the public peace, health, or good morals. There is nothing 
in the essential nature of the business of selling liquor 
which exempts it from such restrictions, and the restric- 
tions may be imposed by the State at any time, provided 
they are general in their nature and not aimed at any one 
particular individual. The court goes on to say : 

" It is a question of public expediency and public morality, 
and not of Federal law. There is no inherent right of a 
citizen to sell intoxicating liquors by retail; it is not a privi- 
lege of a citizen of the State or a citizen of the United States. 
In the prohibition or regulation of the traffic discretion may 
be vested in officers to decide to whom to grant and to whom 
to refuse liquor licenses. The officers may not always exer- 
cise the power conferred upon them with wisdom or justice 
to the parties affected, but that is a matter which does not 
affect the authority of the State, or one which can be brought 
under the cognizance of the courts of the United States. ' ' 

What does that mean? It means, in the first place, that 



OF THE WORLD. 503 

in the absence of an express statute to authorize the issuance 
of such a license the common law of America is prohibitory, 
and not permissive. In the second place, it means that 
where there is no express statute permitting such a license 
to issue, no man can, by any process known to American 
law, compel the governing authorities to grant him such a 
license upon any terms or conditions. There is no sort of 
writ that may be legally issued out of any court in America 
that can, without an express act of the legislature to back it, 
command for a dealer the privileges of public traffic in his 
miserable liquors. 

Again, all statutes that give sanction to the traffic proceed 
upon the known fact that it is a commerce that can only be 
engaged in by public permission, and not by personal pre- 
rogative. It is the rule in such legislation to emphasize the 
abnormal and extraordinary character of the business ; to 
differentiate it from the necessary, beneficial, and reputable 
enterprises of communal life; to impose on it restrictions as 
to the methods of its conduct, limitations as to the places 
where and the character of the persons by whom the trade may 
be prosecuted; and to tax it out of all proportion to other 
callings, and in a so-called proportion to the expenses and 
burdens it imposes, by reason of its evil-engendering nature, 
upon the public purse and the public care. Surely, a trade 
thus officially labelled ' ' dangerous, ' ' thus loaded with legal 
balls and chains, and made to pay in advance — C. O. D. , 
" Come Oinmediately Down," as Rev. Sam Jones puts it — 
the fixed fine for its general misdoings, can scarcely be said 
to have any natural or inalienable rights in our system of 
laws and social order. If the liquor-dealer has any " rights, " 
where are they ? What are they ? 

I have no unkind feeling toward any liquor-dealer person- 
ally. I would not injure him in the slightest matter that 
pertains to his just and inalienable rights. My contention is 



504 THE WHITE ANGEL 

wholly against his trade, and his trade has but one platform 
of rights under the high heavens; and that platform is writ- 
ten in the special statute made by the legislature of this State 
to give that business legal warrant. What rights does that 
statute give to the business ? I state them in their logical 
order: 

1st. He may have a license to prosecute the liquor trade, 
provided the local authorities give him their consent. 

2d. For that consent he must pay the extraordinary 
special fee which they have fixed as the value of their con- 
sent. 

3d. He takes the license burdened with limitations as to 
the hours within which he may traffic legally, as to the fixed 
place where he must conduct the business, as to persons to 
whom he may legally sell his liquors, and sundry other con- 
ditions " too numerous to mention." 

4th. His license puts a series of absolute prohibitions 
upon certain possible phases of his traffic. 

5th. His license can only be issued for a specified term, 
not longer than one year, and may be revoked at any moment 
short of that limit for violations of its terms. 

6th. He buys his license under the well-known rule of 
law, caveat emptor, u Beware, the buyer," and assumes all 
the risks, bu'rdens, losses, damages, and lawful demands that 
may grow out of his business and the exercise of his con- 
ditional rights therein. Neither the community nor its 
authorities assume any new or extraordinary relation toward 
him by reason of having sold him this queer permit. 

Over and above these considerations may be put also the 
affirmations of the leading statesmen and publicists of the 
country, who have with one voice declared that there is 
nothing un-American in prohibition laws. It is beyond 
debate that in a free government, depending for its stability 
upon the consent of the governed, any law within the terms 



OF THE WORLD. 505 

of the original or amended compact, endorsed by the votes 
of the majority of the suffragans, is valid and binding upon 
the whole constituency. 

Lieber says: "Liberty is materially of a civil character ;" 
and he shows clearly that it is not a matter depending upon 
personal rights ox privileges which contravene the desires 
of the larger number interested. 

It has long been a maximum in American commonwealths, 
" Sahis populi suprema lex est" but the liquor-people would 
fain have this changed to read, ' ' Sains salooni suprema lex 
est;" and they have induced many of the ignorant and 
vicious legislators in the State capitals of the land to give 
statutory emphasis to their demand. 

With reference to the original maxim, the courts of the 
country have long since held as follows : ' c This maxim 
applies to cases in which the legislature, ob publicam ntil- 
itatem, sometimes enacts very stringent provisions for pur- 
poses of general public good, involving great restrictions 
upon particular classes of men." It is plain, therefore, 
that laws for the suppression of the liquor traffic are not 
sumptuary laws nor invasions of the personal liberty of the 
citizen. 

Some persons object to these laws because, as they affirm, 
they cause men to become sneaks. Such an objection is 
silly. Surely if there are any men in the community who 
in the pursuit of their business ought to be compelled to 
sneak into secret places, through byways and back alleys, 
down cellars and into dingy lofts, they are the liquor-dealers. 
If no other advantage ever comes to a community from the 
enactment of a prohibition law than the closing of the open 
saloons along the highways, where decent men, women, and 
children walk in pursuit of their daily affairs, that of itself 
will be a blessing. Let the law but 'be sufficiently enforced 
to compel the drunkard to hide himself when indulging in 



506 THE WHITE ANGEL 

his debauch ; much will be gained for public decency and 
good order. 

But, says another class of objectors, Prohibition is almost 
as immoral in its effects as the liquor traffic itself, because 
it makes hypocrites of men. There is nothing in all modern 
life more ridiculous than the expression of grief which over- 
spreads the countenance of a bloated liquor-dealer as he 
fondles his hands in Uriah-Heap fashion and deplores the 
tendency of prohibition laws to increase the crop of hypo- 
crites in the land ! It is all silly twaddle, not to be indulged 
in by any man jealous of his reputation for common sense 
and common honesty. 

Since our public concerns are very largely in the hands 
of the politicians in local and State assemblies, it is plain 
that we must either change the attitude toward the liquor 
traffic of the politicians who are now in control of our legis- 
latures, or get an entirely new set of law-makers, who will 
pledge themselves in advance to give us rigid and righteous 
statutes on the subject. 

The right contention, then, is between the Prohibitionist 
and the public authorities over the question as to whether 
those authorities ought or ought not to grant such licenses ? 
To that controversy the liquor-dealer is not a first party at 
interest. The side of the issue which bears upon his inter- 
est is represented by the assumption of the public authorities 
that they ought to grant such licenses to prosecute the liquor 
trade. There is a tremendous significance in that situation. 
Right at that point the cause of Prohibition oftenest meets 
its unholy defeats. There is the tug of war. If our fights 
could always be upon the issue of the right of the people 
to have Prohibition as against the right of the liquor- 
dealers to liberty for their traffic, our victories would be 
certain, continuous, eventually, yea, speedily, complete. 
Instead of this being the issue, we are compelled always 



OF THE WORLD. 507 

and everywhere to wage our warfare against the govern- 
mental powers. 

The difficulty in our contest over the national issue is 
clearly with the Government rather than the people. With 
the Government the matter is purely a question of revenue, 
and not of morals. The Congress and the heads of depart- 
ments say u the Government is upon our shoulders," and 
we must provide the ways and means to pay the Govern- 
ment bills. No one disputes their statement of the case, 
hut the manner in which they discharge their duty is gen- 
erally the chief administrative issue over which the political 
parties are at war. 

Under the present system of the Government about one- 
third of its revenue is derived from the taxation and license 
of liquors and the liquor traffic. This same system, upon a 
calculation of ordinary governmental expenses, produces an 
annual surplus of revenue just about equal to the tax on 
liquors. It is therefore plain that the liquor-tax is not a 
necessary source of revenue, or that an equal sum collected 
from other sources is an absolutely unnecessary tax. 

But this latter sum, we are told, is levied upon articles 
which are either luxuries or cheap products that would 
otherwise become fatally competitive with similar American 
produced articles. In other words, in the interest of ade- 
quate protection to American industries and products none 
of the customs duties can be decreased or abolished. Then 
the unnecessary internal revenue tax ought to be, and the 
$80,000,000 or $100,000,000 of surplus it produces be left in 
the pockets of the people. The people demand that the reve- 
nues shall be reduced by the amount of the average annual 
surplus. This demand has been in turn, and in express 
terms, made in the platforms of the leading political parties, 
the Democratic, the Republican, and the Prohibition. The 
legislatures of such Democratic States as Virginia, North 



508 THE WHITE ANGEL 

Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama have repeat- 
edly, by joint resolutions addressed to Congress, made ex- 
press demands for the abolition of the Internal Revenue 
system. The National Democratic party has again and 
again championed this opposition to "the war taxes" 
involved in the Internal Revenue system. The last Repub- 
lican convention (1888) promised to sacrifice the whole Inter- 
nal Revenue system, rather than destroy any part of the 
scheme of tariff protection. The Prohibition party, believ- 
ing that it is not only immoral, but is a bulwark of defence 
to the liquor traffic, has strenuously urged the abolition of 
that vicious and dangerous system. Viewed, then, from 
any of these standpoints — regarded as ' ' the source of the 
surplus," a system of " unnecessarily prolonged war taxes," 
or as u an immoral copartnership between the Government 
and the liquor trade," — the Internal Revenue scheme is 
under the ban of the people and ought to be abolished 
speedily and absolutely. 

Why is it not abolished ? Because the liquor trade does 
not wish it, and the liquor trade is a most powerful element 
in our national politics. The Internal Revenue is the bond 
of monopoly and the engine of power to the Whiskey Trust 
of the country. That gigantic organization, with its mil- 
lions of capital and machinery for raising corruption funds 
for the emergencies of elections, would be ruined by the 
abolition of the Internal Revenue system. It would have 
no Government relation, no national protection, no immu- 
nity from general and disastrous competition, and its dissolu- 
tion would be immediate and complete. Of course the poli- 
ticians deny most strenuously that consideration for the wel- 
fare of the liquor oligarchy influences their actions upon 
this important matter. But the facts are against them. 
Their attempts to otherwise explain their adhesion to the 
system do not explain. They are inconsistent to the border 



OF THE WORLD. 509 

of absurdity. In a recent series of interviews with leaders 
in Congress they professed, without distinction of party, 
that they perpetuated this Internal Revenue system as a 
temperance measure, whereby to restrict and control the 
traffic, and thus prevent the deluging and debauching of 
the land with "free whiskey." They coolly ignore the 
well-known physical and moral truth that 

" They who now are given o'er to drink, 

Drink freely, fully, all that they can hold; 
And they who now are indisposed to drink 

Will scarce commence because 'tis cheaper sold." 

That doggerel has more decent truth in it than all the silly 
and shambling solicitude for temperance that is put forward 
by these Oily Gammons of the national legislature. Their 
mock-unction in behalf of the temperance interests of the 
country deceives no one. 

Sometimes the liquor-men of the country complain to us, 
saying that we should accord to them " Christian treatment." 
What they mean by this is hard to understand. They say, 
' ' It was not the policy of Christ to prohibit the making and 
drinking of wine," and therefore we ought not to do so. 
Neither was it the policy of Christ to have the woman taken 
in adultery stoned to death, according to the law, by the 
parties who discovered her and haled her before Him for con- 
demnation. But that immunity granted by Christ has never 
been seriously adduced as a reason why we should not make 
laws against adultery and public debauchery. It is a suffi- 
cient answer to all this talk of the un-Christian character of 
Prohibition to say that we proceed for its establishment upon 
the whole purpose of Christ, and not because of any text that 
fell from His lips or from the pens of any of His apostles. 

The liquor traffic, as we have it now, is altogether a new 
issue. We deal with it in the light of the great truths of 
the gospel and the plain knowledge that we have of the 



5IO THE WHITE ANGEL. 

object Christ had in view in coming to earth —namely, " to 
destroy the works of the devil. ' ' That is what we are about 
when we seek to abolish absolutely and for ever the liquor 
traffic. 

The saloon-people sometimes profess to want their victims, 
after they have become drunkards, publicly punished in such 
a way as to make drunkenness odious. They contend that 
if we will put the drunkards in chains and make them labor 
publicly, they will soon become ashamed and give up their 
indulgence in liquors to excess. But when the people of 
Minnesota by statute endeavored to put these recommenda- 
tions into practice, the saloon-people were the first to howl 
over the brutality and barbarism of such a law! 

As the legislation of the country is pressed forward upon 
this subject, as the laws grow more and more numerous and 
stringent, the liquor traffic becomes more desperate in its 
methods. It is prepared for any crime, if we are to judge of 
the temper of the trade by the overt acts of assault, murder, 
and incendiarism which have been charged to it and proved 
against it in many parts of the country in recent years. But 
these things are only adding to the argument of the people 
who are fighting the battles of Prohibition, and soon or late 
the justice and patriotism of the country will triumph, and 
the saloon will go, never to return as a factor in American 
civil or social life. 

The number of retail dealers of liquors is gradually decreas- 
ing in most of the States of the Union through the operation 
of Prohibition, local option, high license, and municipal 
restriction laws. In one year (1888) the tax-stamps issued by 
the United States Government were fewer by 20,837 than 
the year before. If, therefore, we only press the battle by 
day and by night, without fear or weariness, there is the 
promise of a day of overwhelming victory not far off. 

God speed the dawning of that mighty day! 





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CHAPTER XXV. 

^ SIGNIFICANT COMPARISON OF FACTS. 

TT is being remarked, more and more, in public and in 
■*- private, that the Southern States are making more rapid 
progress in actual Prohibition legislation than the States of 
the North. This is true. The South has not gone to the 
extent of constitutional or statutory prohibition. The people 
in those Southern States where amendments to the consti- 
tutions looking to Prohibition have been submitted have 
always negatived such propositions. This they have done, 
not because they were opposed to the principle of suppress- 
ing the liquor traffic effectually and totally, but because their 
political education has been, for a century or more, along 
lines which have rendered them inimical to omnibus legisla- 
tion on questions of this character. Believing firmly in the 
great doctrine of local self-government, they have held them- 
selves rigidly to its demands, and therefore local option for 
towns, districts, and counties has been popularized in prefer- 
ence to State prohibition. As a consequence, they have 
saved to themselves much bitter agitation and political inno- 
vation. They have adhered to the doctrine of the rights of 
the majority, and when a local constituency has voted Pro- 
hibition, its right to do so has stood unquestioned. The 
majority which voted it was also the majority which elected 
the officers to enforce it. Hence Prohibition generally pro- 

511 



5 1 2 THE WHITE ANGEL 

hibits in the South. It has been by these means that in the 
fourteen Southern States between the Potomac and the Rio 
Grande nearly two-thirds of the territory embraced and over 
one-half of the twenty millions of population included have 
been brought under the operation of prohibition laws. This 
is about forty per centum more territory, by the square-mile 
measurement, than is embraced in the seven distinctively 
Prohibition States in the North and West, and includes a 
population more than double that of those States. 

This showing is decidedly contrary to the old-time idea 
which has prevailed in the North concerning the people of 
the South. The belief has passed current for many years 
that the Southern people were peculiarly the drinking peo- 
ple of the Union. This has never been true, and is farther 
from the truth now than at any time in the past. 

When the war between the States ended, and the men 
from the South returned beaten from their battle-fields to 
resume the implements of industry and rebuild their ruined 
homes and fortunes, they speedily recognized that they could 
not rehabilitate their domain and restore their ancient wealth, 
comforts, and prestige, and drink much liquor at the same 
time. They saw also that their boys, who from thenceforth 
must rely upon their own exertions largely for their support, 
must be protected from drunkenness and the robberies of the 
liquor traffic. Yet more clearly they saw that the recently 
emancipated negroes, if they were to be controlled in free- 
dom and their free labor utilized to the best advantage to 
themselves and to their country, must be kept as far as pos- 
sible from the fascinations and ravages of the liquor evil. 
These three things have had more potent influence in the 
South to produce earnest, honest, and effectual temperance 
legislation than all of the tracts, lectures, and preachments 
to that end which have been let loose in America in one hun- 
dred years. 



OF THE WORLD. 513 

One of the results of this quiet, steady movement in the 
South has been to largely reduce the number of liquor- 
dealers, to increase the sobriety of the people, and to give an 
incalculable impetus to the material and industrial progress 
of that section. 

One of the unique incidentals of the liquor situation in the 
South is the semi-humorous manner in which many localities 
deal with the subject of "high license. " They consider that 
only to be "high license " which is so high in price that no 
one wants it! For instance, in order that they may escape 
the charge that they are enacting sumptuary laws and invad- 
ing the domains of personal liberty, they will get the legis- 
lature to enact a special license law for a given county. 
The license fee will be fixed at $20,000 for the privilege of 
retailing liquors in that county. This does not "dictate 
what a man may eat or drink," nor does it deny him his 
1 ' personal liberty ' ' to sell liquor if that be his desire. It 
only requires that he should pay $20,000 per annum for the 
privilege. The principle involved in paying for the privilege 
is the same whether the fee be one dollar or one hundred 
thousand dollars! When a man recognizes the right of the 
people to charge the first figure, he estops himself from deny- 
ing to them the right to charge the second sum. There are 
many localities in the South, therefore, where the license fees 
range by law from one dollar to twenty thousand dollars per 
annum. 

Senator Butler of South Carolina is authority for the state- 
ment, having personally made the calculation, that there is 
only about half as much liquor drunk, proportionally, in 
South Carolina as in Pennsylvania, in Charleston as in Phil- 
adelphia. When asked if this was not due to / the fact that 
northern peoples, the world over, felt the need of more intox- 
icants than southern peoples, he replied: " I am hardly called 
upon to explain the philosophy of isothermal lines or to 



514 THE WHITE ANGEL 

decide the question whether alcoholism is a disease; I am 
not a biologist; I do not know anything about the mysteri- 
ous influence of the Tropic of Cancer; I only present the 
facts. The people of the North may not be to blame for 
their appetites — perhaps they are not; I am merely recording 
the fact." 

A long list of quotations, giving the views of Senators and 
Representatives from the various States, North and South, 
East and West, on the subject of the liquor traffic and the 
proper method of dealing with it, exhibits a substantial 
agreement among them, without respect to their party affilia- 
tions, that a combination law, requiring high license, with 
local option to the community to license or not, is the near- 
est solution of the liquor problem that the politicians can 
offer. 

The fortunes of both the great political parties are just now 
so precarious (depending, as each of them does, for success 
upon the shifting of a very meagre minority of the aggregate 
national vote) that neither of them need be expected to tol- 
erate the national agitation of the liquor question. Neither 
can afford to alienate from its ranks its liquor-selling 
contingent. 

In 1884 the Democratic plurality in the popular vote was 
65,098. In 1888 it 96,650. The liquor-dealers of the 
nation, with their immediate employees and voting rela- 
tions, will count between 400,000 and 500,000 votes, which 
can be given solidly against either party that jeopardizes the 
interests of the liquor traffic. Hence it will be seen that 
neither of the parties is in a position to drive from its ranks 
this important, vigorous, and liberal body of voters. 

It is curious to notice how the liquor legislation of the 
different sections of the country is being turned in favor of 
high license and local option. This is the ground on which 
the liquor-dealers and the legislators have compromised. I 



OF THE WORLD. 515 

quote here a few statements which are pertinent to the 
subject : 

Senator Jones of Arkansas gives the following account 
of how matters stand in his State : "We have a thorough- 
going high-license system. In the first place, any county 
may prohibit the sale of liquor or the issue of a license from 
election to election. In the second place, the county judge 
shall, in cases where license has been voted, refuse to issue 
the same on the remonstrance of a majority of adults, 
including women, and may refuse to permit any saloon to 
be opened within three miles of a school or church. Then 
the judge has absolute discretion about issuing a license, 
even where it has been voted. 

"The result is that, outside of the towns along the rail- 
roads and the larger cities, there are four-fifths of the towns 
where not a drop of liquor can be openly obtained. To 
sell or give away a drop of liquor on election day is an 
indictable offence. Down the Arkansas Valley Railroad I 
don't believe there are more than three towns where a gill 
of whisky can be bought." 

In answer to a question, the Senator continued: u No, 
there is not very much excitement now about temperance. 
The local-option law is enforced with little friction, and is 
thought to work admirably. There has been a vast decrease 
of crime in the State." 

Of the State of Connecticut, Senator Piatt said: "In 
Connecticut it is license or no license. Individual towns 
vote whether they will grant licenses or not, and if the 
vote is favorable saloons are licensed under certain condi- 
tions by the county commissioners. A majority of the 
towns in the State — generally rustic towns — vote not to 
license ; and in some years as many as one hundred out of 
one hundred and seventy towns in the State vote No. Of 
course this is equivelent to local prohibition, as the law is 



5 1 6 THE WHITE ANGEL 

generally enforced. There is a good deal of agitation all 
the while for a prohibitory law." 

' ' In Colorado, ' ' said Senator Teller, ( ' we have a little of 
everything, according to the desires of the people, ranging 
from free liquor to prohibition. This is the result of local 
option, which simply means, Let a community do as it likes. 
Greeley, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, and some other 
towns, have prohibition : other towns exact $1500 apiece 
for licenses ; and still others sell freely. Wherever the 
hand of the law falls, Prohibition actually prohibits. The 
trend of public opinion in our State is, I think, toward 
liigh license, with local prohibition where desired." 

Senator Spooner of Wisconsin was not averse to speaking 
freely about his State. ' ' We license, ' ' he said, ' ' at the 
rate of $250 in Milwaukee, and $500 in other towns. 
Whether that is low or high license depends on how you 
regard the business. The Prohibitionists of the State are 
constantly stirred up, and run candidates for every office 
when they have a chance. A very large proportion of the 
towns license. In the no-license towns the law is fairly 
obeyed, but some drug-stores reap a rich harvest, and there 
are endless quarrels and lawsuits resulting. ' ' 

Senator Palmer of Michigan said : " Prior to the last ses- 
sion of the legislature we in Michigan had a high-license 
law, which permitted cities to prescribe a license that 
liquor-dealers could pay. The bond, too, was fixed by the 
locality. Last spring a new general law was' enacted that 
may be called a local-option law. It provides that the 
question of liquor-selling shall be settled by counties, each 
for itself. On a petition signed by a certain number of 
voters an election shall be held to determine whether the 
county shall license or prohibit entirely. These elections 
are now going on. At the last account, twenty-six counties 
have gone dry, and only one (Washtenaw) is wet — that is, 



OF THE WORLD. 517 

twenty-five have voted prohibition. There are eighty- 
three counties in the Peninsular State, and half of them 
will have elections this next summer. ' It looks as if nine- 
teeu-twentieths would go dry. The law takes effect on 
May 1st. In case the counties vote to sell, licenses cost 
$300, $500, and $800, depending on whether they sell malt 
or spirituous liquors, wholesale or retail. ' ' Senator Palmer 
believes that the law will work well, and that it will settle 
the question. 

Senator Blackburn of Kentucky said : ' ' We have adopted 
local option, and it works. Out of the one hundred and 
nineteen counties in the State, not less than seventy — a 
positive and even large majority — have actually established 
Prohibition. We repudiate the doctrine of general prohibi- 
tion imposed by either the nation or the State, but we hold 
to and enforce the Democratic doctrine that the people 
locally have a right to govern themselves, much or little ; 
and so the power to license or to refuse to license is exer- 
cised in Kentucky by counties, municipalities, and pre- 
cincts. A license in Kentucky costs from $1000 down, 
depending on the local will. If the locality declines to act 
on the question, the county judge is armed with discretion- 
ary power, and he may peremptorily license or not license, 
as he pleases or thinks it best for the community. In a 
little town in my county that contains only one thousand 
inhabitants the price of a license to sell liquor is $500. Of 
course there are people who are dissatisfied and clamor for 
the millennium ; but these good souls, like the poor, are 
always with us, and doubtless their plaint will go up to 
the end of time." 

Let us look for a moment at a few figures. In the State 
of Alabama there is only one retail liquor-dealer to 1143 of 
the population ; while in Minnesota, with over 200,000 less 
population in the aggregate, there is one liquor-dealer to 



518 THE WHITE ANGEL. 

every 393 of trie population. In other words, it takes three 
times more saloons to supply the people of Minnesota with 
strong drink than it does to supply the people of Alabama, 
who are more in number. And yet there is no reasonable 
explanation to any sensible man why the people of Minnesota 
should require 3310 retail liquor-dealers to supply their 
appetites, while the people of Alabama, greater in number, 
need only 1323. 

Take another instance. In the State of Mississippi there 
are 1,289,600 people, with 1267 retail liquor-dealers, or one 
to every 1017 of the population. Then look at New Jersey, 
with 1,444,933 °f population, with 7829 retail liquor-deal- 
ers, or one to every 184 of the people. 

Similar comparisons can be easily made by any one hav- 
ing the Government reports at hand. These reports, by the 
way, will give the investigator another set of figures and 
facts equally surprising and instructive: 

In the fourteen Southern States, from Maryland to Mex- 
ico, there are 36,465 saloons; in the State of New York 
alone there are 38,105. 

These Southern States have less than one-fifth of the 
whole number of retail liquor-dealers reported from all the 
States and Territories in the Union. But, on the other 
hand, the States of New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illi- 
nois, Wisconsin, and California have 98,215 such dealers, 
which is only 185 less than half of the whole number of 
the retail liquor-dealers in the United States and the Ter- 
ritories. 

The question is often asked, "When Prohibition does 
come, will the fight over its adoption take the shape of a 
sectional issue?" There are some people who think that 
this may be so, on account of the rapidity with which the 
Southern States are driving the saloons to the northward of 
Mason and Dixon's line. It is not likely, however, that the 



OF THE WORLD. 519 

issue will ever come in just that shape. The evils of the 
liquor traffic are pretty widespread, the necessity for its pro- 
hibition is so generally accepted, and the benefits to be 
derived from such prohibition so purely national, that the 
question is bound to assume national proportions and be as 
imminent in one State as in another. 

There are signs of the times which seem to point to a yet 
more rapid crystallization of sentiment in favor of Prohibition 
than we have ever yet experienced; and those who are hope- 
ful, yet not extravagant, in their anticipations believe that 
the century cannot end before a new alignment of parties and 
people upon this great question must occur. In that event 
the Armageddon will have been fought out and victory for 
God and humanity won before the dayspring of the Twen- 
tieth Century. 




CHAPTER XXVI. 

" THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER." 

T N other chapters we have considered the influence of alco- 
-■■ hoi upon the individual. Its influences upon the family, 
upon society, and upon the State are of equal importance. 
In the fullest sense, indeed, they are of far greater import- 
ance. If the effects produced were confined to the individ- 
ual who "puts an enemy into his mouth to steal away his 
brains," they would still be deplorable, but would be of far 
less weight than at present, when the evil consequences of 
drunkenness are visited severely upon the family, and little 
less severely upon society and the State. The drunkard 
does not injure himself alone, but forces all mankind to 
share in the ill-effects of his unhappy appetite. 

These influences of intemperance upon the world at large 
have been already considered in the preceding pages, and 
need no more than a hasty resume here. They are too well 
and sadly known, indeed, to demand review in any detail. 
It may be said here that the word " intemperance " has a 
much wider meaning than that which has been given it in 
these pages. There may be intemperate indulgence in 
twenty directions — in eating, in work, in exercise, in study, 
in enjoyment, etc. But the evil effects of these are, in great 
measure, confined to the individual. There is only one form 
of intemperance with which society is vitally concerned or 
from which it specially suffers — that of over-indulgence in 




RUM'S DEADLY WORK. 



522 THE WHITE ANGEL 

intoxicating beverages. And it is to this form alone, there- 
fore, that the word " intemperance" is popularly applied. 

The effects of this vice upon the family are familiar to 
every one. The sufferings, and frequently the death, of 
wives and children directly from the evil passions and abuse 
of drunken husbands and fathers, and indirectlv from neelect 
and poverty resulting from their waste of time and money, 
compose a large percentage of the miseries of mankind. In 
thousands of families happiness is converted into bitter suf- 
fering through this cause. It is a mistake to claim that the 
brutality often shown by men under the influence of liquor 
is but an open display of their secret character. The facts 
do not sustain this theory. The drunken man is for the 
time an insane man. He is under the control of fancies 
rather than facts, and the passions which are locked up in 
every man's nature are set free in drunkenness and placed 
under the control often of wild and unfounded fancies. 
Men of kindly dispositions may thus become raging de- 
mons through the influence of the insane suspicions and 
irrational passions engendered by rum, and brutal rage at 
even slight opposition is of the most ordinary occurrence. 

Fortunately, this effect of intoxication is not universal. 
In many inebriates results of a less violent character appear; 
they become mild, gay, good-humored, or dull and stupid, 
and their families escape the direct consequences of expo- 
sure to unbridled violence. But the indirect evil effects are 
never wanting. The neglect of the family for the compan- 
ionship of inebriates is one of these. The neglect of work 
or business is another. The waste of money is a third and 
most disastrous one. Poverty is the inevitable lot of the 
drunkard's family — a needless and bitter poverty, since the 
starving wife and children helplessly behold the money 
which might bring them bread and comfort idly squan- 
dered for the' support of the rumseller and rummaker. 



OF THE WORLD. S 2 3 

Upon this there directly follows loss of employment, fail- 
ure of mechanical skill, trembling hands, and shattered 
nerves, disabling diseases, and an indisposition to steady 
and honest labor which is one of the most ordinary con- 
sequences of dissipated habits. At this point the influence 
of drunkenness begins to spread from the family and to 
make itself felt by society and the state. The idle, penni- 
less, morally corrupt inebriate naturally graduates into the 
criminal. He craves money as a means to new drunkenness, 
and his moral debasement is such that no impulse of hon- 
esty is likely to control him. Rum banishes that dread of 
consequences which restrains sober men, and yields a wild 
recklessness which leads naturally to the most desperate en- 
terprises. This is so common a result of intoxication that 
it is proverbially the custom for the man meditating a crim- 
inal act to first fill himself with liquor as a sedative to con- 
science and an instigator of recklessness. 

That the drunkard is a social nuisance need scarcely be 
said. His disgusting appearance and behavior, his loud 
voice and senseless talk, his disregard of the decencies and 
proprieties of life, all tend to render him an eyesore and an 
object of abhorrence from which persons of delicate senses 
and refined tastes shrink in disgust, and which is disagree- 
able to all sober men, however blunt their sensibilities. 

But the drunkard is not content with making himself a 
nuisance in society, a terror to or a burden on his family, 
and a criminal in his relations to the state. In the latter 
category he is a nuisance, a terror, and a burden of the most 
pronounced character, and unquestionably the most difficult 
problem with which the makers and executive officers of 
criminal law have to deal. His law-breaking propensities, 
while only occasionally leading him to theft, normally lead 
him to violence of every description, from simple assaults to 
brutal murders. 



524 THE WHITE ANGEL 

The suspicions, the irrational fancies, the mad passions 
engendered by rum have been the most prolific causes of 
crimes of violence which the world has ever known. As- 
saults of more or less brutal and violent character, due to 
drunkenness, may be numbered by the hundreds or thou- 
sands daily, while the murders committed in our country 
are ascribable to rum in a far greater ratio than to any other 
influence. So clearly is this fact recognized that few of 
those who design deliberate murders venture to attempt 
their purpose without first drowning their consciences in 
liquor and losing in its fumes that control of reason and 
natural dread of consequences which permit few sober men, 
however lacking in moral restraint, to perform such acts of 
violence. 

That rum does more to fill our prisons than all other 
caues combined is evident from circumstances mentioned in 
a dozen places in the preceding pages. The first effect of 
the banishing of the whiskey-bottle from any locality by 
prohibitory law seems to be to deplete the prisons; and so 
decided is this result that in numerous cases the prisons 
have been emptied, leaving the jailer nothing to turn his 
key upon but the rats and the air. To the instances of this 
kind which we have already given dozens might be added. 
But there is no need to seek to prove what is already beyond 
question. 

The beneficial influence upon the state of prohibitory- 
law is not confined to the emptying of our prisons. It emp- 
ties hospitals, poor-houses, and insane asylums as well. This 
is not achieved so rapidly, but not less surely. The disease- 
effects of intemperance are not to be thrown off at a moment's 
notice, and the physical and mental wrecks which rum has 
made usually have no avenue of escape except the gateway 
of death. But as these die out the effect of prohibition is to 
prevent their being replaced. As the hospital and the asylum 



OF THE WORLD. 525 

empty themselves into the grave, they are not refilled from 
the world. With the stoppage of intoxication far the most 
prolific cause of accidents, diseases, and mental and moral 
obliquities is cut off, courts lose half their business, prisons 
three-fourths their tenants, and hospitals and asylums an 
equally large proportion of their patients. It would be diffi- 
cult in this age to conceive of any single cause more cal- 
culated to bring back the Golden Age to mankind than the 
complete banishment of alcoholic liquors from the list of 
human beverages. 

But the revenues of the state ? Here is another consider- 
ation that cannot be avoided. Would you cut off at one 
blow the most prolific source of the governmental revenues, 
and leave the state to stagger on under a load of debt or to 
lay disabling taxes on the necessaries of life? We can but 
say that it is a sorry spectacle of a state whose foundations 
are laid upon the sufferings, the vices, and the criminal 
appetites of its citizens, and which threatens to tumble into 
ruin if these supports are withdrawn. Nor are we ready to 
accept any such conclusion. The people of the United 
States are now capable of paying out of their surplus not 
only the abundant revenues demanded by the government, 
but $700,000,000 annually in addition for alcoholic liquors. 
If the latter sum were saved by the stoppage of drinking, 
there would be no great difficulty in paying the less than 
$100,000,000 per year raised from the liquor tax, while a 
clear profit of $600,000,000, or ten dollars per capita, would 
remain in the hands of the people. 

But is not this $100,000,000 and much more directly 
expended on the court, prison, hospital, poor-house, and 
asylum work provided by intemperance, and which would 
be saved if liquor-drinking was banished? If this is the 
case, a curious estimate results. And this is, that the United 
States lays an annual tax of $100,000,000 upon a debased 



526 THE WHITE ANGEL 

appetite of its citizens as a fund to enable it to take care 
of the criminals, the paupers, the diseased, and the imbe- 
ciles which are manufactured by its protection and fostering 
of that appetite. Let it prevent the disease by prohibiting 
the poison, and it will no longer need money to provide an 
antidote for that poison. 

We do not design at this point to add to the list of facts 
already given in support of the propositions just advanced. 
But a single apposite illustration and comparison may be 
here adduced. Governor Begole of Michigan asserted, in 
a late address, that from an accurate study of statistics he 
had found that ninety-one per cent, of the crime and pau- 
perism of that State came directly from the use of intoxica- 
ting drinks. He says nothing of the additional percentage 
indirectly due to the same cause. To this we may contrast 
a remark quoted from Hepworth Dixon in regard to the 
prohibitory village of St. Johnsbury, Vt. : ' ' The Maine 
Liquor Law is enforced there, with the result that its six 
constables work in the scale-manufactories except on spe- 
cial days, when they don their uniforms to make a little 
show." 

The New Republic estimates: u In the territory covered 
by the United States there have been killed in war during 
one hundred and fifty years 600,000 persons. It is estimated 
that rum has killed 7,500,000 persons. The great wars of 
the world for twenty-five years from 1852 to 1877, including 
the Franco-German War and our own Civil War, cost a 
fraction over $12,000,000,000. The cost of intoxicants for 
the same period in the United States was more than 
$15,000,000,000, or $3,000,000,000 more than all the wars 
in the world, and for every thousand killed in battle, rum 
kills twelve thousand." 

As to the actual effect of intoxication upon its victims, a 
striking illustration may be drawn from the indignant re- 



OF THE WORLD. 



527 



buke of a lady to the rumseller who had made a sot of her 
husband. She had sought him in the tavern, pressing 
through its tipsy throng to demand of the landlord, in 
tones of anguish and reproach, 
"Give me back my husband!'' 

"There's your husband," he replied, pointing to a pros- 
trate wretch on the floor. 

"That my husband ?" she cried, in a voice that thrilled 

all hearers; "that my 
husband ? What have 
you done to him ? That 
my husband ? What have 
you done to that noble 
form that once, like a 
sheltering oak, spread 




The Wife's Denunciation. 



its protecting shade over the fragile vine that clung to it for 
support and shelter ? That my husband ? With what par- 
alyzing chill have you touched the sinews of that manly 



528 THE WHITE ANGEL 

arm ? That my husband ? What have you done to that 
noble brow which he once wore high among his fellows, as 
if it bore the superscription of the Godhead? That my 
husband ? What have you done to that eye with which he 
was wont to ' look erect in heaven ' and to see in his mirror 
the image of his God? What Egyptian drug have you 
poured into his veins and turned the life-giving flood into 
black, bitter, and burning pitch ? Give me back my hus- 
band ! Undo your basilisk spells and give me back the man 
that stood with me at the altar!' > 

In such words might Ulysses have addressed the enchant- 
ress Circe who had turned his comrades into swine, implor- 
ing her to restore to them their lost humanity. Or may we 
not look upon this ancient conception as a symbolical illus- 
tration of the drinking habit? May we not regard Circe 
as a simile of the rum-bottle, with its strange power of 
transforming men into brutes, and the counter-magic with 
which Ulysses restored to his swinish comrades their lost 
humanity as a simile of prohibitive law, with its power of 
retransforming into men the brutalized victims of the Circe 
of strong drink ? 

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps in a recent number of the Cen- 
tury has told so well the story of hereditary intoxication, 
and of some of the other influences which predispose to 
drunkenness, that we cannot forbear from quoting from her 
tale of ' ' Jack ' ' an illustration of the pious subterfuges be- 
hind which the defender of the rum-traffic often conceals 
himself. Jack was an honest, weak-brained, drunken waif, 
who had been induced one evening by a friend to attend a 
prayer-meeting. For the reason given below it did not 
produce the desired effect upon him. 

■ ' He liked the singing. His restless, handsome face took 
on a change such as a windy day takes on toward dusk, when 
the breeze dies down. When he found they were singing 



OF THE WORLD. 529 

( Rock of Ages, ' he tried to sing it too, for he was a famous 
tenor on deck. But when he had sung a line or two, flash ! 
down in one of the empty pews in front, he saw a thin old 
lady with blue eyes, sitting in a black alpaca dress with her 
hands clasped on her gingham apron. 

" 'That's my mother. Have I got the jim-jams?' asked 
this unaccustomed worshipper of himself. But then he 
remembered that he was sober. He could sing no longer 
after this, but bowed his head and looked into his old felt 
hat, and wondered if he were going to cry or get religion. 
In point of fact, he did neither of these things, because a 
very old church-member arose just then, and said he saw 
a poor castaway in our midst to-night, and he besought the 
prayers of the meeting for his soul. Jack stopped crying. 
He looked hard at the old church-member. He knew him, 
had always known him. The fisherman waited till that 
prayer was through — it was rather a long prayer — and then 
he too sprang to his feet. He looked all around the decor- 
ous place; his face was white with the swift passion of the 
drinking-man. 

" * I never spoke in meetin' in my life, ' said Jack in an 
unsteady voice. ' I ain't religious; I drink. But I'm sober to- 
night, and I've got something to say to you. I heard what 
that man said. I know him. He's old Jim Crownoby. I've 
always know' d Jim Crownoby. He owns a sight of proper- 
ty in this town. He's a rich man. He owns that block on 
Black street. You know he does. You can't deny it. Nor 
he can't neither. All I want to say is, I've got drunk in 
one of them places of his, time again; and if there ain't any- 
body but him to pray for my soul, I'd rather go to the devil. ' 

"Jack stopped short, jammed on his hat and left the meet- 
ing. In the shocked rustle that followed, some one had the 
tact to start 'Rescue the Perishing,' as the fisherman strode 
down the broad aisle. He did not go again." 

34 



53° THE WHITE ANGEL 

THE MILDER ALCOHOLICS. 

In regard to the problem, recently much considered, as to 
whether the growing use of the milder beverages, such as 
wine and beer, in place of the strong liquors used so pro- 
fusely in the past, is not a decided gain to the temperance 
cause, opinion is greatly divided. Both sides of this ques- 
tion are held by strong advocates — the one pointing to the 
unquestionable decrease of drunkenness, and claiming it as 
a triumph of beer; the other looking upon beer as a danger- 
ous halting-place on the highway of intemperance. One 
party is sure that in moderation is safety. The other is con- 
fident that continued moderation is impossible, and that its 
adoption as a principle can but lead to a renewal of the im- 
moderate indulgence of past times. 

Concerning the claim of the mild effects and compara- 
tive harmlessness of wine and beer as beverages, history 
tells a different story. The drunkenness of the ancient 
world was a wine drunkenness; that of the Middle Ages 
was due to beer. In modern England and Germany beer is 
a prolific source of intemperance, while wine yields the same 
result in France and Italy. In regard to wine-making Cali- 
fornia we may quote from Mr. Nordhoff's work on that 
State: 

' ' The temptation to a new settler in this State is always 
strong to plant a vineyard, and I am moved by much that I 
have seen to repeat publicly the advice that I have often 
given to persons newly coming into the State: Do not make 
wine. ; I remember a wine-cellar, .... and on a pleasant 
sunny afternoon around these casks a group of tipsy men — 
hopeless, irredeemable beasts, with nothing much to do ex- 
cept to encourage each other to another glass and to wonder 
at the Eastern man who would not drink. There were two 
or three Indians staggering about the door; there were 
swearing and filthy talk inside; there was a pretentious 



OF THE WORLD. 53 1 

tasting of this, that, and the other cask by a parcel of sots, 
who in their hearts would have preferred ' forty-rod ' whis- 
key. And a little way off there was a house with women 
and children in it who had only to look out of the door to 
see this miserable sight of husband, father, friends, visitors, 
and the hired-men spending the afternoon in getting drunk. ' ' 

The recent statistics of England and Germany show that 
free indulgence in beer-drinking in those countries leads 
almost irresistibly to spirit-drinking, and serves as a con- 
venient cover for this more dangerous habit. From Boston 
we are told, under date of 1870, "That not exceeding five 
per cent, of the retail dealers who pretend to sell ale, porter, 
strong beer, and lager beer confine or limit their trade to 
malt liquors only. The service of the search-warrants 
almost invariably discloses the fact that ' lager-beer saloons, 
so called, keep and sell more or less distilled liquors.' " 

Similar testimony comes from various quarters, and also 
to the effect that the licensing of beer-shops renders the pro- 
hibition of spirituous liquors almost impossible. The mayor 
of New Bedford said in 1872 that "legalizing the ale- and 
beer-shops has been a curse to our city, and carries misery 
to hundreds of homes in our midst. They are nothing but 
shields to cover the stealthy sale of all intoxicating drinks, 
and are almost a thorough protection of the rumseller against 
the enforcement of the prohibitory law" 

As to the influence of beer-drinking on the commission of 
crime a few quotations will be of value. The district attor- 
ney of Essex, Mass., says: "I am inclined to believe that 
beer not only creates an appetite for something stronger, but 
that its immediate influence and effect upon crime are more 
dangerous to the community than the stronger liquors, in 
this way: the excessive use of the stronger drinks is liable to 
make men di'unk and helpless \ unable to do much harm, while 
beer excites men to acts of violence \ desperation, and crime. ' ' 



53 2 THE WHITE ANGEL 

Professor Youmans remarks: "Long before the speech 
thickens and the motions falter there is a firing of irasci- 
ble passions which leads to the commission of numberless 
offences — from two-edged utterances that wound the spirit 
to homicidal thrusts that destroy the body." 

Dr. John Todd of Pittsfield remarked in 1867: "I wish to 
say in regard to beer that while I think it is not so intoxica- 
ting as other drinks, it demoralizes awfully. We have a 
large population of foreigners with us, and beer is their 
chief drink. It makes them besotted; it makes them cross; 
it makes their homes unpleasant; it prevents them from ris- 
ing in civilization ; it shuts them out from the influence of 
everything that is ennobling. ' ' 

In regard to the alleged wholesomeness of beer, which is 
one of the strong points made by the brewers and their sup- 
porters, we cannot do better than quote the opinions of some 
of the most capable authorities. Physicians who are in a 
position to intelligently testify are almost unanimous in 
condemning its use in large quantities, and claim that its 
alcoholic contents produce highly dangerous disease-effects 
upon the internal organs. 

The Quarterly Journal of Inebriety, a purely scientific 
rather than a philanthropic journal, says: "The constant 
use of beer is found to produce a species of degeneration 
of all the organism, profound and deep-seated. Frothy de- 
posits, diminished circulation, conditions of congestion and 
perversion of functional activities, local inflammations of 
both the liver and the kidneys, are constantly present.' 7 It 
adds: "In appearance the beer-drinker may be the picture 
of health, but in reality he is most incapable of resisting 
disease.' ' 

Similar testimony may be quoted from the distinguished 
physician Sir Astley Cooper as a result of his experience in 
Guy's Hospital, London. He says that "the beer-drinkers 



OF THE WORLD. 533 

from the London breweries, though presenting the appear- 
ance of rugged health, were the most incapable of all 
classes to resist disease; that trifling injuries among them 
were liable to lead to the most serious consequences, and 
that so prone were they to succumb to disease that they 
would sometimes die from gangrene in wounds as trifling 
as the scratch of a pin." 

To the same effect we have the experience of Dr. Charles 
R. Drysdale, the senior physician of the London Metropol- 
itan Free Hospital, who says: "It is in London, above all, 
that the physician learns what are the diseases caused by 
beer-drinking, since London is famous for its beers;" and 
he adds: "I declare to you that the amount of gout, uri- 
nary, and lung diseases I have seen in London attributable 
to beer alone is quite distressing." He continues: "We 
must remember that a pint of strong beer may contain an 
ounce of alcohol; and, seeing that many men consume 
several quarts of beer daily, we need not wonder that beer- 
drinking in London causes, as I have found so often, dis- 
ease of the liver, lungs, brain, urinary organs, and heart." 

The beers of England are somewhat stronger than those 
of America, yet are not more dangerous to health. Several 
of our leading life-insurance companies consider beer-drink- 
ing as a bar to insurance, while medical journals and expe- 
rienced physicians all over the country point out the perils 
of this form of indulgence and deny the innocence blindly 
or interestedly claimed for it. 

This question is so important a one that some further tes- 
timony in regard to it may be given. Dr. John Ellis tells 
of a brewer whose family he attended as a physician, and 
who, proud of his physique, exclaimed to him: "Talk to 
me about beer not being healthy! see how strong and 
healthy I am!" striking his chest with his fist repeatedly 
as he spoke. He was a large fleshy man, a Scotchman by 



534 THE WHITE ANGEL 

birth, and evidently had inherited a good constitution. Not 
many months after that conversation, as the writer was rid- 
ing by a saloon not far from this man's brewery, he was 
hurriedly called in to see a man who had fallen to the floor, 
and he found the brewer lying dead — without much doubt 
from fatty degeneration of the heart. 

To the same effect is the following testimony, taken from 
the Mining and Scientific Press-. 

' ' The belief that beer is a healthful drink is constantly 
urged upon us by manufacturers and lovers of this beverage, 
and physicians aid the spread of this delusion in many ways. 
It is not often that an unprejudiced person makes a careful 
study of the subject to see whether beer is really wholesome 
and life-giving or not, and so it is a pleasure to temperance 
advocates to hear from a man who has done so. That man 
is Colonel Green, president of the Connecticut Mutual Life 
Insurance Company. He says: ' In one of our largest cities, 
containing a great population of beer-drinkers, I had occa- 
sion to note the deaths among a large group of persons 
whose habits, in their own eyes and in those of their 
friends and physicians, were temperate, but they were 
habitual users of beer. When the observation began they 
were, upon the average, something under middle age, and 
they were, of course, selected lives. For two or three years 
there was nothing very remarkable to be noted among this 
group. Presently death began to strike it, and until it had 
dwindled to a fraction of its original proportions the mortal- 
ity in it was astounding in extent, and still more remark- 
able in the manifest identity of cause and mode. There 
was no mistaking it — the history was almost invariable: 
robust, apparent health, full muscles, a fair outside, increas- 
ing weight, florid faces; then a touch of cold or a sniff of 
malaria, and instantly some acute disease with, almost in- 
variably, typhoid symptoms, was in violent action, and ten 



OF THE WORLD. 535 

days or less ended it. It was as if the system had been kept 
fair outside, while within it was eaten to a shell, and at the 
first touch of disease there was utter collapse; every fibre 
was poisoned and weak. And this, in its main features, 
varying of course in degree, has been my observation on 
beer-drinking everywhere. It is peculiarly deceptive at 
first; it is thoroughly destructive at the last." 

One further extract will suffice to close this portion of our 
subject. 

"Malt liquors," says a distinguished writer, " though of 
less alcoholic strength than spirits and most wines, are capa- 
ble of causing drunkenness; and this is quite a common 
effect of their use in England. At first apparently more 
favorable to nutrition than the other classes of alcoholic 
liquors by the fulness and corpulency of frame which they 
induce, they are found to be after a while adverse to a ready 
and active discharge of the functions. The brain suffers 
and the faculties are dull and sodden, or apoplexy strikes 
down the beer-bibber; the heart suffers and there are hyper- 
trophy and retarded and irregular circulation, and danger of 
sudden death from this cause; the lungs suffer, and there are 
congestion, pneumonia, and not seldom dropsy of the chest. 
Other forms of dropsy also succeed to the free use of malt 
liquors, which kill more speedily and with preceding symp- 
toms of greater degradation— reduction of the man to the 
mere brute — than even after the habitual use of ardent 
spirits. Some of the English writers, while they admit and 
deplore these deleterious effects of drinking malt liquors, 
attribute them to adulteration. They add, however, that 
the taste of the people generally is so vitiated by the adul- 
terated — in fact, poisonous — beer and ale and porter that 
even if the brewers were all honest they would not find cus- 
tomers for their purer liquors In our climate, even 

more than in that of England, the habitual use of malt 



536 THE WHITE ANGEL 

liquors is decidedly injurious. The free acid, though par- 
tially disguised to the taste, is detrimental to digestion and 
to all the assimilating functions; it is particularly inimical 
to the skin and the kidneys." — Bell on Regimen and Lon- 
gevity. 

ADULTERATION OF LIQUORS. 

The adulterations referred to in the above extract are 
numberless in variety, occasionally harmless, but as often 
of the most dangerous character, while the practice of adul- 
terating is so common that it is difficult to get pure liquors, 
even at the highest prices. Nor can the most experienced 
taste in many cases distinguish between the pure and the 
impure beverage. Not content with filling their customers 
with the poison of alcohol, liquor-sellers dose them with a 
hundred hidden drugs, frequently deadly in character. 

Dr. Hiram Cox of Cincinnati says: u The amount of adul- 
terated liquors is enormous, and, with a few exceptions, the 
entire ' liquor-traffic of the world is not only a fraud, but it 
also amounts to a system of drugging and poisoning." 

The business of adulteration has become so simplified that 
a novice can at short notice produce an imitation of almost 
any liquor sufficiently close to deceive nine-tenths of the 
drinkers. Recipes for this purpose are innumerable, and 
imitation brandies and wines are daily produced by the 
mixture of pure spirits and various drugs, or of native 
wines with similar ingredients. American wine-makers 
now offer for sale imitations of every European wine, and 
wine-fanciers are mad enough to drink these perilously 
doctored beverages in preference to the pure wine which 
forms their basis. 

Of the adulterating materials employed, the most danger- 
ous and one of the most common is fusel oil or amylic alco- 
hol. This is a product of distillation, in itself worthless, 



OF THE WORLD. 537 

but if mixed with ordinary spirits greatly reducing their 
cost. That it is an acrid poison and destroys the mucous 
membrane of the stomach are matters of apparently little 
importance to the distillers, judging from the fact that they 
conduct their distillation in a way that tends to greatly in- 
crease this dangerous ingredient of whiskey, which they 
make little or no effort to get rid of by rectifying. 

The brewers perform their dangerous work by the aid of 
cocculus indicus, an acrid narcotic poison which is used to 
add intoxicating effect to beer without heed to its poisonous 
qualities. Col: Dudley says in this connection : ( ' The exces- 
sive use of malt liquor produces softening of the brain and 
many other diseases. When it is adulterated its effects are 
always injurious; and it is now so generally adulterated that 
the only safety is in letting it alone. ' ' 

Dr. Cox, who was appointed by the legislature of Ohio to 
analyze the liquors offered for sale in Cincinnati, says: 

"I was appointed to the office of chemical inspector on 
the 19th of March, 1855. Since then I have made over six 
hundred inspections of stores and lots of liquors of every 
variety, and now positively assert that over ninety per cent, 
of all that I have analyzed were adulterated with the most 

pernicious and poisonous mgredients I called at a 

grocery-store one day where liquor was being sold. A cou- 
ple of Irishmen came in while I was there and called for 
some whiskey. The first one drank, and the moment he 
drank the tears flowed freely, while he at the same time 
caught his breath like one suffocating or strangling. When 
he could speak he said to his companion, ' Och, Michael, by 
the powers! but this is warming to the stoomach, sure.' 
Michael drank and went through like contortions, with, the 
remark, 'Troth, and wouldn't it be foine on a coold, frosty 
mornin', Tim?' After they had drunk I asked the proprie- 
tor to pour me out a little in a tumbler. I went to my office* 



538 



THE WHITE ANGEL 



got my instruments, and examined it. I found it seventeen 
per cent, alcoholic spirits, when it should have been fifty, 
and the difference in percentage was made up of sulphuric 
acid, red pepper, pellitory, caustic potash, brucine, and one 




A Warming Draught. 

of the salts of nux vomica (strychnine). One pint of such 
liquor (at one time) would kill the strongest man." 

In a sample of a consignment of Seignette brandy, sent as 
a first-class article from a New York house to a Cincinnati 
druggist, who ordered it for medicinal purposes, Dr. Cox sank 
a polished steel blade. In fifteen minutes the brandy had 
turned black as ink, while the steel was covered with a thick 
coating of rust. The druggist refused to pay for it, and suit 
was entered. Dr. Cox analyzed the liquor in the presence 
of the court. In one cask he found sulphuric acid, nitric 
acid, nitric ether, prussic acid, Guiana pepper, and an abun- 
dance of fusel oil. He pronounced it base, common whiskey. 
Not one drop of wine. In the other cask he found "the 
same adulterations as the first, but in greater abundance, 



OF THE WORLD. 539 

■with the addition of catechu. This is most villainous." 
We hardly need say that the New York house lost its suit. 
Dr. Draper of the University of New York analyzed 
thirty-six samples of brandy, whiskey, etc., mostly from 
the bars of first-class hotels and restaurants of that city, 
and supposed by drinkers to be pure and safe beverages. 
In all but four of them he found fusel oil and coloring- 
matter. Those from lower-class bars contained also cay- 
enne pepper, salt, and other ingredients. On the average, 
they showed but thirty-two instead of fifty per cent, of 
alcohol, the loss being replaced with deleterious chemicals 
which would* produce the visible effects of intoxication and 
the unseen effects of poisoning. 

RESUME. 

little remains to add to what we have said. If it be 
asked, What are the actual results of the nineteenth-century 
temperance reform movement ? we can best answer with a 
brief summary of the story we have already told. The first 
quarter of the century found America the victim of intem- 
perance to a degree seldom surpassed and not often equalled 
in the history of mankind. The last quarter of the century 
finds it freed from the curse of intemperance and infiltrated 
with the spirit of temperance reform to a degree that puts 
Europe to shame, and with a promise for the future which 
is not matched elsewhere upon the earth. The immoderate 
drinking of half a century ago has become the moderate 
drinking of to-day, while the sentiment in regard to tem- 
perance reform is so changed that it is easy now to pass by 
large majorities license and prohibitive laws which could 
not have obtained a single vote in the legislatures of 
1825. 

What we have to consider, indeed, is not so much the 
comparative quantities of liquor consumed at successive 



54-0 THE WHITE ANGEL 

periods as the change of public opinion concerning intem- 
perance, A general comparison of the status of liquor- 
drinking in 1825 with that in 1888 will show a remarkable 
improvement in this respect, and indicate more clearly than 
any argument the importance of the advance that has been 
made. 

In 1825 intemperance occupied a position of the highest 
respectability. Distilled spirits were classed among the 
' ' good creatures of God, ' ' as beverages actually necessary 
to the health, happiness, and endurance of the community, 
and very few, from the clergy downward, objected to the 
imbibing of beer, wine, or whiskey, or looked upon such 
indulgence as a vice or a weakness. Many, indeed, depre- 
cated drunkenness, but it was generally condoned as a par- 
donable weakness, the misfortune of having too weak a head, 
or was otherwise excused; and the drunkard did not neces- 
sarily lose caste in society from this cause alone. Only 
when intemperance brought in its train some of the evils 
which are its frequent attendants — immorality, crime, pro- 
fanity, loss of self-respect, etc. — was there a decline in social 
position; but intoxication alone, free from those conse- 
quences, was winked and laughed at, rather than abhorred. 

This feeling was a direct outgrowth of the habits of 
society. Where every one drank, no one could be con- 
temned for drinking. Let us glance at the situation. The 
Church, the exemplar of morals, set an example of indul- 
gence which the world was not slow to imitate. Drinking 
was common, not alone with the church-membership, but. 
with its highest officials. The deacon and his wife felt it 
necessary to have their daily eleven and four o'clock drams, 
and many deacons made the manufacture and sale of 
whiskey a principal item of their business. Even the 
clergy, as a rule, did not hesitate to indulge. A pastoral 
ordination, according to the testimony of Rev. Lyman 



OF THE WORLD. 54 1 

Beecher and others, was often little short of a debauch, 
and drunkenness was a frequent condition of many re- 
spected pastors. 

Outside the Church affairs were ten times worse. The 
rulers of the nation, Congressmen and legislators, gov- 
ernors and officials of every class, drank with impunity, 
with no loss of station or public respect. Rum played an 
essential part in making the laws of the community at that 
epoch. In the highest circles of society the same habits 
prevailed. Every social meeting became a revel, in which 
wine and brandy flowed freely, and in which the guests not 
only as a rule became drunk, but were in many cases ex- 
pected and forced to become drunk. To lock the door and 
refuse to permit any one to leave the room except through 
the gateway of intoxication was an ordinary trick, con- 
sidered by many of our ancestors as a commendable dis- 
play of hospitality. 

While such were the habits and sentiments of the higher 
grades of society, those of the lower were almost unmen- 
tionable. Rum was an essential feature of every occasion — 
the marriage, the funeral, the merrymaking, the election, 
the races. Every special occasion of industry, from the 
harvesting to the church-raising, was sanctified by the rum- 
bottle. Whiskey was necessary to overcome the heat of 
summer and the cold of winter. It was considered abso- 
lutely essential to the endurance of hard labor. The tavern 
taproom was the common meeting-place of the male mem- 
bers of the community, and was daily visited without loss 
of self- or public respect. Moderate drinking was universal, 
immoderate drinking exceedingly common, and the ex- 
tremes of drunkenness so ordinary a spectacle in the streets 
as hardly to excite a comment. When men of high respect- 
ability could fall dead drunk in the streets, what was likely 
to be the condition or the sentiment of the laboring classes ? 



54 2 THE WHITE ANGEL 

This indulgence in intoxicating beverages was not con- 
fined to men. It was common to women and children also. 
The young were taught to drink from early childhood, and 
often graduated as drunkards before reaching manhood. 
Drunkenness was not common among the women of the 
higher classes of society — it never has been in any period of 
the world except in some few instances of utter national de- 
moralization — but drinking was common, and the main dif- 
ference between ladies and gentlemen in this respect was that 
the former were more moderate in their potations. As for 
the women of the lower classes, intoxication was only less 
common than with the men of their own rank in society, 
and a saturnalia of intemperance ruled among all classes 
of the American people. 

As a contrast to this picture let us look upon that of the 
present condition and sentiment of society in relation to 
intemperance. The merest glance shows at once a remark- 
able difference, and if we carry the picture of the past in our 
mind's eye, and compare it with what we see around us, it is 
difficult to conceive that a half century of progress could 
have produced such a change in public opinion. 

To consider present conditions in detail, as we have done 
those of the past, the state of the Church first forces itself 
on our attention. Here the reform has been almost absolute. 
The drinking of ministers and high officials has ceased, and 
they could commit few sins more repugnant to the moral 
sense of the community. In church-membership also the 
imbibing of intoxicants has almost ceased to exist. Most of 
the churches, indeed, have become great total-abstinence 
societies, and in a full estimate of the membership of these 
societies that of the churches should in great part be in- 
cluded. 

As regards the customs of the higher official circles of the 
nation in this respect as compared with those of past times, 



OF THE WORLD. 5 43, 

the experience of a competent observer will best serve as 
evidence. As a preliminary, however, it may be said that 
the wines which of old times profusely graced the Presiden- 
tial tables have, in some of the recent administrations, been, 
banished therefrom, partly in response to the temperance sen- 
timents of the ladies of the White House, partly to the gen- 
eral feeling of the country. Where, in public dinners, they 
are retained, it is significant to perceive that it is done out 
of respect to the tastes and opinions of the representatives 
of foreign nations, or at least this is offered to the people 
of America as an excuse for their use. Thus here, as else- 
where, we find the lower stage of temperance sentiment in 
Europe dragging us down to its level. 

In regard to Congressional intemperance we may quote 
from a speech made by Senator Vest of Missouri in 1882. 
He prefaced his remarks by the following testimony as to 
former habits in the West: 

' 1 1 remember, when, in my boyhood days in Kentucky, 
the first rite of hospitality was to extend alcoholic drink to 
guests both coming and parting, and it was found upon my 
father's table as regularly as a bowl of milk or bread and 
butter for home consumption. The victims of intemper- 
ance in those days were numbered by the hundreds and 
thousands; public men in the country fell from it in the 
halls of Congress 

"To-day, I say here as a fact, that out of seventy-six 
Senators in the Congress of the United States more than 
half, and I believe more than fifty of them, do not touch, 
taste, or handle alcoholic drink in any shape whatever. 
And I say more than that. A member of the House of 
Representatives or of the Senate who would ever dare to 
show himself in a state of intoxication in the public coun- 
cils would never disgrace his seat again in either house. 
One of the most brilliant, one of the most fascinating, of 



544 ' THE WHITE ANGEL 

all the public men I have met in my career in Washington 
in those years was guilty of excess publicly, and at the re- 
nominating convention he received not one single, solitary 

vote I recollect when free whiskey and free votes 

were the mottoes of both parties." 

In corroboration of the above statement we may add the 
following trenchant remarks, attributed by the New York 
Independent to General D. E. Sickles: 

"The war of the rebellion was really a whiskey war! 
Yes, whiskey caused the rebellion. I was in the Congress 
preceding the war. It was whiskey in the morning — the 
morning cocktail — a Congress of whiskey-drinkers. Then 
whiskey all day, whiskey and gambling all night. Drinks 
before Congress opened its morning session, drinks before 
it adjourned. Scarcely a committee room without its demi- 
john of whiskey, and the clink of the glasses could be heard 
in the Capitol corridors. The fights, the angry speeches, 
were whiskey. The atmosphere was redolent with whiskey 
— nervous excitement seeking relief in whiskey, and whis- 
key adding to nervous excitement. Yes, the rebellion was 
launched in whiskey. If the French Assembly were to 
drink some morning one half the whiskey consumed in 
any one day by that Congress, France would declare war 
against Germany in twenty minutes." 

Abundant testimony of this character might be offered, 
were it necessary, in evidence of the improvement in the 
habits of legislators, while it has become as difficult to buy 
a vote with whiskey to-day as in those days it was to obtain 
one without. Closed saloons on election day indicate the 
popular sentiment in this respect, and the drunken election 
riots of the past have ceased to exist. 

In judicial circles no judge to-day would dare to prime 
himself with brandy as an aid in the administration of jus- 
tice, while to furnish a jury with liquor, as in the past, 



OF THE WORLD. 545 

would be viewed as in itself a crime worthy of legal pun- 
ishment. In professional circles the same growth of habits 
of sobriety is visible. The medical profession, for instance, 
was remarkable in the past for the number of drunkards 
which it embraced. As an evidence of the truth of this 
statement may be quoted a remark made by Professor Gib- 
bons of Philadelphia in an address delivered a number of 
years ago to the graduates of one of the medical colleges of 
that city. He asserted that of all the graduates in medicine 
from the medical schools of America during the present cen- 
tury, fully one-half had sunk into the grave of the drunkard. 
Although habits of inebriety are not yet weeded out of the 
profession, no one would think of making a statement bear- 
ing any comparison in stringency with this in regard to the 
medical profession of the present day. 

If now we consider the existing drinking habits of society 
at large, and the present state of public opinion upon this 
subject, it is to perceive as marked an improvement. It 
may simply be said that in the higher circles of society 
drunkenness has ceased to be respectable. This remark 
may seem of no special importance, yet in reality it is full 
of significance. Public opinion is a strong lever, and to 
the average man and woman nothing is of more conse- 
quence than the maintenance of their position in society. 
Yet few things would now lower a person in the social scale 
more suddenly and decidedly than indulgence in open drunk- 
enness. There is yet a degree of indulgence for some of the 
higher- toned crimes: there is growing to be no indulgence 
for the beastliness of intoxication. The one lowers a man 
morally, the other degrades him physically; and just at 
present with many members of society physical repulsion 
weighs more heavily than moral abhorrence. We have 
reached that stage of civilized progress in which we shrink 
with pain and disgust from physical and mental deteriora- 

35 



546 THE WHITE ANGEL 

tion: we are but slowly approaching that higher stage in 
which moral delinquency in its more respectable forms will 
be equally repulsive. 

Moderate drinking is still very common among persons of 
high social standing. Drunkenness where it occurs among 
such people is hidden from the public eye as sedulously as a 
robber might hide a stolen treasure. And in wide ranks of 
society even moderate drinking is severely disapproved, and 
where indulged in is done so in the utmost secrecy. Many 
men are not ashamed to drink in the presence of certain of 
their associates who do their utmost to conceal the habit 
from those whose opinion they hold in the highest esteem. 

The force of public opinion, in fact, has become a power- 
ful agent in mitigating the drinking habits of society, and 
we owe to this, more largely than to anything else, the marked 
difference between the social habits of 1825 anc ^ 1888. This 
however, is saying nothing in derogation of the special ef- 
forts at temperance reform in the intermediate period, since 
principally to them is due the public opinion which is now 
so important an agent in restraining men from intemper- 
ance. 1 

This influence bears far more strongly upon women than 
upon men, and amorfg the women of American birth drunk- 
enness has almost ceased to exist, while the habit of drink- 
ing has become remarkably reduced. The women of Amer- 
ica have gone farther than the men in this particular. They 
are restrained to a greater extent by a sense of the moral 
obliquity of intemperance, and their social and moral in- 
fluence is one of the strongest forces in the temperance 
reform of the present day. 

As for the members of the laboring classes of American 
society, the improvement is little less marked. There is, 
indeed, more of open drunkenness, yet American mechanics, 
as a rule, are as ashamed to be seen in the streets drunk as 



OF THE WORLD. 547 

any of their so-called social superiors. It is as important to 
them as to any member of the community to retain their 
standard of respectability and the respect of their associates. 
That drunkenness is, therefore, a far less frequent spectacle 
in our streets than of old scarcely need be said. And of 
what is still visible, much the greater part is the drunken- 
ness of foreigners. It is due to immigration and to the fact 
that the lower classes of Europe are much below those of 
America in self-respect. 

Intemperance has by no means ceased to exist among 
Americans. There is far too much of it at the present day. 
But it is driven to hide its head, to lurk in secret places, to 
cringe in shame from the eyes of that searching public 
opinion which has become a power of such mighty moment. 
The open, flaunting drunkenness is that of persons of for- 
eign birth or of recent foreign descent, and is largely a 
resultant of the sharp class-demarkation of European coun- 
tries, and the consequent lack of any high standard of re- 
spectability in the members of the laboring class. In 
America the mechanic, if well behaved, may mingle on 
terms of equality with the capitalist, and not only feels 
himself the equal of the latter, but endeavors to dress as 
well, to live as well, and to behave as well. 

Among workingmen it is growing more clearly evident 
that drinking unfits them for the proper performance of 
their duties. This acts as an inducement to abstinence in 
many cases, while in others the managers of great enter- 
prises are making the sobriety of their employes an abso- 
lute requirement. 

Many of the larger railroads have the strict rule that any 
employe found under the influence of liquor must be at once 
discharged. Too much rests upon sobriety in this vocation 
to render any mitigation of the rule of abstinence possible. 
A similar requirement exists in many of the large manufac- 



54^ THE WHITE ANGEL 

tories of the country. The delicate machinery of to-day 
cannot be properly handled by a man whose nerves are un- 
strung by liquor; such men waste time and perform poor 
work, and as a safeguard sobriety is being insisted upon. 

A like distinction against those who drink is made by the 
best of our life-insurance companies, who recognize clearly 
that the life of no such man is safe. However healthy he 
may appear outwardly, poison is at its fell work within him, 
and may carry him off at a moment's notice. The bene- 
ficial societies of the period are showing the same discrimi- 
nation against the drunkard. Here the money of poor men 
is at stake, and they have no fancy for risking their hard- 
earned wages in favor of those who are pursuing a suicidal 
course of life. 

A similar distinction exists in most mercantile houses. 
The merchant wants clear-headed bookkeepers and clerks; 
the banks, sound-brained financial officers; all of them de- 
sire employes who lead quiet, frugal, and reputable lives, 
not those whose idleness and extravagance may lead to the 
defalcation which has of late years become such a common 
consequence of such habits. 

These are some of the directions in which the temperance 
reform is making its way, and the time seems fast approach- 
ing in which no drunkard or habitual drinker will be ac- 
cepted in positions of trust, in which intoxication will be 
banished from the professions, and in which habits of in- 
ebriety will act as a bar to the employment of mechanics in 
the majority of workshops. When this happy consummation 
shall be reached, drunkenness in America will be confined, 
in great measure, to the tramp and the loafer, and the man 
who retains any self-respect, who values the estimation of 
the public, or who desires to make a reputable living, will 
find comparative sobriety an absolute necessity of the situa- 
tion and total abstinence a highly desirable life-habit. 



OF THE WORLD. 549 

As the case stands at present, we are largely indebted to 
foreign immigration for our drunkards, and were this source 
of reinforcement shut off the prohibition sentiment in Amer- 
ica would enormously strengthen and the existing prohibi- 
tive States could hardly fail to gain rapid additions to their 
ranks. 

This nineteenth-century temperance reform movement is 
likely to be more permanent than that of any previous 
period, from the fact that it is the work of the people 
themselves. It does not come from above, as in the re- 
forms inaugurated by emperors and lawgivers, but from 
within, and is the outgrowth of a steadily strengthening 
popular sentiment. It has the advantage of using all the 
methods of propagation which the nineteenth century has 
placed at the use of reformers — the press, the Church, the 
school, the lecture platform, the legislature, and all the ad- 
vantages of medical and chemical science. Now first have 
we become aware of what alcohol really is and what it really 
does. It is no longer viewed as a "good creature of God." 
All the fictions which had gathered around it have been one 
by one dissipated. It has ceased to be looked upon by science 
as a food, as a warmth-producer, as a health-giver, as an aid 
to the endurance of heat, cold, or fatigue. Its usefulness as 
a medicine has been largely discredited, while its deleterious 
influence upon the body has been shown to be far beyond 
any previous estimate. The old objectors to liquor-drinking 
were concerned only with its visible effects and the crimes 
to which it gave rise. The late objectors have become 
aware of a multitude of less visible effects, and perceive 
that alcohol is in every conceivable respect an injury to the 
community, its evil influences being felt by the individual, 
by society, and by the state, and making themselves appar- 
ent in the progeny of the drunkard to the third or fourth 
generation. 



550 THE WHITE ANGEL 

Can a community of steadily-growing- knowledge, moral- 
ity, public feeling, and self-respect permit such an evil to 
continue unchecked in its midst ? But one answer can be 
given to this question. The reign of rum is doomed. It is 
but a question of time when its throne will be levelled with 
the earth. 

It must be distinctly remembered, however, that the prog- 
ress of temperance in America is nowhere paralleled abroad. 
In Great Britain there is considerable local prohibition, but 
an almost total absence of restrictive law, and intoxication 
is much more prevalent than in America. It has become 
only to a minor extent disreputable. Ireland and Germany 
are the main fields from which our intemperate population 
is annually recruited, and which furnish the great majority 
of our keepers of whiskey- and beer-shops and our brewers. 
Evidently, they are regions in which the state of moral prog- 
ress as respects intemperance is at a much lower level than 
in America. 

On the continent of Europe, indeed, with the exception 
of some few nations, intemperance is increasing instead of 
diminishing, while in Germany and France the beers and 
wines which have hitherto been the prevailing drinks are 
rapidly being replaced by spirituous liquors. Intemperance 
does not seem to have culminated in these countries, but 
appears to be approaching that intolerable, state of prevalence 
from which the reform began in America, and from which it 
may begin abroad. 

Elsewhere throughout the world the outgrowth of civili- 
zation has been attended with a vast broadening of the area 
of intemperance. We have already noted the sad work done 
by the rum-bottle among the aborigines of our own country. 
Similar work is being done in every land to which the bless- 
ing of civilization has been carried. England, in particular, 
is culpable for carrying the bottle to every region in which 



OF THE WORLD. 55 I 

she has formed colonies, and making drunkards of millions 
of savages and barbarians to whom intoxication was one of 
the unknown arts. 

From all parts of the East the story of increasing intem- 
perance comes to us. India, Burmah, and Ceylon are be- 
coming seats of prevalent intoxication — a change of habit 
for which England is directly responsible. Abundance of 
evidence in support of this statement might be given, but 
we have space for but one or two quotations. The follow- 
ing is from the Rev. J. G. Gregson, an English missionary 
in India, whose testimony is said to be .beyond question. 
He says that the Hindus consider that "eating pork and 
drinking liquor form the principal features of native Chris- 
tian life." "The statistics of native gentlemen who drink 
are simply terrible. I asked a first-rate native doctor some 
time ago what he thought was the proportion of men who 
drank among the educated classes, and he at once said about 
ninety per cent. ; . . . . native doctors have told me that 
deaths from delirium tremens are very common; .... and 
we have reason to believe that drink is being introduced into 
the zenana for the women to indulge in the liquor their hus- 
bands are so exceedingly fond of. ' ' 

Nor is this growth of intemperance confined to the edu- 
cated classes. Surgeon-major R. Pringle remarks: "With 
the exception of the presidency towns and among the camp- 
followers drinking habits among the natives were practical- 
ly unknown. The Mohammedan shunned spirits as shrdb 
(shame-water), and the respectable or high-caste Hindu as 

to him the mark of degradation Now, alas! all is 

changed; .... as regards the lower and laboring, classes 
among the natives of India, there is serious reason to be- 
lieve that intemperance is making fearful strides, or rather 

bounds, among them I can speak for ten millions in 

the North-west Provinces when I state that if local self- 



5 5 2 THE WHITE ANGEL 

government were granted not a grogshop would remain in 
twelve months. " " Twenty years' personal observation of 
the Dedhra Dhoon in the North-western Provinces has 
demonstrated to me the appalling fact that the entire race 
of hereditary owners of the soil have all been swept off 
by drink." 

In China, "thirteen years ago you could scarcely see a 
drunken man anywhere, more especially in Shanghai; now, 
if you go down the principal streets, you will see hundreds 
of Chinamen intoxicated — not with native drinks, but with 
those imported from this country" (England). Of Burmah 
we are told, "We have now annexed Upper Burmah, and a 
friend writing to the press from Bhamo states that it is now 
a fearful place for cheap drink and heavy crime. A liquor 
manufactured from rice-lime will dissolve a Martini bullet 
in thirty minutes, and burns the insides of those who drink 
it. ' ' Of Japan, in which for nearly a thousand years tem- 
perance was enforced, it is said, " To-day intemperance is one 
of the growing and desperate evils of Japan. The Japanese 
spend yearly eighty million yen, or more than sixty million 
dollars, for sakk, in the manufacture of which twenty-six 
million bushels of rice are consumed, or almost one-fifth of 
the total yield of the country, leaving a short allowance for 
food and none for export. ' ' 

From the great islands of the Southern Pacific, Australia 
and Madagascar, a similar story comes. The rum made 
from the refuse of the sugar industry of the English colo- 
nial island of Mauritius found a market in Madagascar, where 
it produced a terrible effect upon the natives. The villages 
became scenes of such misery and drunkenness, and crime 
increased to so fearful proportions, that the government be- 
came seriously alarmed. Of the imported spirits, every tenth 
barrel went to the government stores, and this the king or- 
dered to be taken to the shore and emptied into the sea. But 



OF THE WORLD. 553 

the English merchants of Mauritius put a stop to this when 
they saw that it was having a discouraging effect on the 
natives. The king, Radaina I., was given to understand 
that he was depreciating the value of a British article of 
trade, and that further indulgence in such behavior would 
be considered an act unfriendly to England. So the poor 
king found it advisable to desist. The natives are now 
raising their own sugar-cane and making their own rum, 
and intoxication is increasing with fearful rapidity. The 
Rev. H. W. Little, from whom these facts are quoted, fur- 
ther says: "From Natal, from the Cape, and from all the 
older colonies of the south a flood of spirit is poured into 
the territories of the native chiefs. Whole villages are found 
in a state of intoxication — kings, chiefs, people, women, 
children, all in a state of hideous frenzy born of the fire- 
water of the white man." 

Of Australia we are told by N. T. Collins of the Good 
Templars: " Unfortunately, drink has been the great curse 
of the people in this as well as in other lands. Alcohol was 
one of the earliest mediums of exchange, and many valu- 
able properties were bartered away for a gallon or two of 
rum. One of the first hospitals in the colony was built by 
rum, the government giving the contractors a monopoly in 
the drink-traffic, and it was long known as the ' Rum Hos- 
pital.' Of late, however, the Good Templar organization 
has been increasing in that land, and is beginning to check 
the tide of intemperance." 

Sir C. Warren says regarding Africa: " We were in the 
habit of taking the Bible in one hand and the brandy-bottle 
in the other to the natives of South Africa. There were 
many thousands of the natives who were reduced to the low- 
est depths of poverty and an early death by the drink-traffic 
which was forced upon them by the laws of this nation." 

In a striking generalization Archdeacon Farrar of Eng- 



554 THE WHITE ANGEL 

land remarks: u We have girdled the world with a zone of 
drink." Mr. John Thompson, the traveller, says: "We 
talk of civilizing the negro and introducing the blessings 
of European trade, while at one and the same time we pour 
into this unhappy country incredible quantities of gin, rum, 
gunpowder, and guns." 

If more exact statements be desired, the following quota- 
tion from Mr. James Irvine, a gentleman vouched for as 
specially qualified to testify, may be of interest: "The ex- 
tent of the trade is so prodigious that I think the following 
estimate of the quantity annually poured into ' the rivers ! 
or the delta of the Niger is sufficiently eloquent, and relieves 
me from the necessity of further remark regarding the evil. 
Such a flood of rum cannot be consumed without causing an 
awful amount of demoralization. It is not possible to get at 
actual shipments, but I am sure I do not over-estimate the 
quantity when I put down sixty thousand hogsheads of fifty 
gallons each (three million gallons) as the annual consump- 
tion in the rivers of Niger, Benin, Brass, New Calabar, 
Bonny, Opobo, Old Calabar, Camaroons, etc. In other 
words, this compressed space lying between four degrees 
and eight minutes east longitude — or, say, two hundred and 
fifty miles of coast — consumes twenty thousand tons, or, 
say, twenty shipsful of one thousand tons each, every year. 
The amazing thing is that all this traffic is conducted in the 
main by not over a dozen firms, the members of which are 
most excellent men, many of them, I believe, sincere Chris- 
tians." 

Similar stories could be told of many other districts of 
Africa, and into the newly-opened Congo region, with its 
assumed forty or fifty millions of population, rum is being 
poured with a most discouraging rapidity. The Congo is 
navigable for one thousand miles into the heart of Africa, 
and spreads its liquid fingers far through that until recently 






OF THE WORLD. 555 

unknown land. The region drained by the river and its 
affluents has been formed into the ' ' Congo Free State, ' ' 
under the auspices of the International African Trading- 
Association, and as a profitable measure of trade there were 
sent thither in 1885, from five of the nations concerned in 
the Association, 10,377,160 gallons of rum. Germany has 
been particularly active in this demoralizing trade, though 
other nations — America among them — are far from freedom 
from the sin of importing misery and rum into the heart of 
Africa. The ' ' freedom of trade ' ' in spirituous liquors 
guaranteed by the Association has so prospered, indeed, 
that at least four-fifths of all that the civilized world buys 
from the Africans of the Congo Valley is said to be paid 
for by strong drink. 

Is it the purpose of ' ' civilization ' ' to make room for itself 
in Africa by destroying the natives ? Certainly, no more 
effective method of doing so could be devised than that 
which is so actively being put into operation. It is, how- 
ever, rather the reckless love of gain of unscrupulous men, 
and a careless dereliction of duty in the executive powers of 
the leading nations, than any designed purpose to which 
this evil activity is due; and not until the moral sense of 
the world is roused to a degree which is yet far from being 
reached can we hope for an earnest endeavor in legislators to 
check this soul-destroying traffic. What will be the fate of 
the uncivilized peoples of the earth before that happy period 
arrives it is not easy to estimate. Probably the greater part 
of them will be "civilized" by rum off of the face of the 
earth, and new room made for the expansion of modern 
civilization. 

The vile work performed in Africa is being paralleled by 
the evil activity of Russian traders among the savages of 
Northern Asia, who are supplied with rum in exchange for 
their furs and other valuable products, while the extension 



55^ THE WHITE ANGEL 

of Russian authority throughout Central Asia is likely to 
add other wide provinces to the dominion of the empire of 
rum. Everywhere in the barbarous and half-civilized re- 
gions of the earth we find the barriers of abstinence — those 
raised by religious dogma in Asia and Mohammedan Africa, 
those raised by ignorance in more savage regions — breaking 
down before the deluge of rum, which threatens to overflow 
all that portion of the world hitherto free from its devasta- 
ting flood, and to spread drunkenness with its terrible conse- 
quences through every land on which man has set his foot. 

Yet we can fairly trust that this will prove only a tempo- 
rary evil. The most active colonizing nations, aside from 
Russia, are those of most moral advancement, and the time 
is approaching in which legal restriction will be placed on 
this detestable traffic, and moral civilization make itself felt, 
otherwise than by the distribution of the bottle. 

During the past four centuries the peoples of the savage 
portions of the earth, every region of uncultured man to 
which colonization or commerce has reached, have been sup- 
plied with ardent spirits to an unlimited extent, in defiance 
of the frequent protests of their chiefs and rulers; and 
between the sword, the musket, and the whiskey-bottle — 
the last by no means the least deadly — enlightened man has 
gone far toward ridding the earth of his uncivilized com- 
petitors, and thus making abundant room for the expansion 
of civilization. There has been no deliberate intention in 
this, but there has been abundant recklessness, criminal self- 
ishness, and equally criminal disregard of moral obligation 
on the part of legislators and colonists. This state of affairs 
still continues. Rum is supplied to uncivilized mankind as 
recklessly and indiscriminately as ever; and in this respect 
there is no practical evidence that civilization has progressed 
beyond the stage of morality which it occupied four centu- 
ries a£o. 



OF THE WORLD. 557 

It has progressed, however, immensely progressed, but 
the effect of its progress has not been felt by legislators and 
traders sufficiently to make the one prohibit and the other 
desist from the importation of the death-dealing bottle into 
savage lands. Progress will undoubtedly yet reach this 
stage, perhaps ere long, the legislator, if not the merchant, 
being controlled by the earnest efforts of the strongly-banded 
temperance army which is now marching steadily onward to 
conquest. There is legal prohibition now against supplying 
the Indians of the United States and Canada with intoxica- 
ting beverages. When this desirable prohibitive action shall 
be applied to all uncivilized lands, and the temperance reform 
movement be satisfactorily established in all civilized na- 
tions, temperance must begin its upward march in all quar- 
ters of the earth, and the great reform which America has 
set in train must spread until in time all mankind shall feel 
its enlivening influence, the intoxicating cup be banished or 
its injurious effect reduced to a minimum, in every region of 
the earth, and the fetters of strong drink, which so long 
have held the world in bondage, be finally and irretrieva- 
bly broken. 

This leads us to a consideration of the greatest im- 
portance in regard to the future history of the temperance 
reform movement. 

It is a significant fact that savage tribes, in whatever quar- 
ter of the world they are found, and however temperate they 
have previously been, accept with the utmost eagerness the 
rum-bottle brought them by the whites, and drink them- 
selves into madness or death with a rapidity unequalled in 
civilized nations. Their original sobriety was an enforced 
one, from lack of the ability to manufacture spirituous bev- 
erages. In civilization a similar fact appears. Those who 
are lowest in grade of advancement are the most addicted to 
drunkenness. In the great middle class more or less moder- 



558 THE WHITE ANGEL 

ation has always prevailed, and the degree of intemperance 
in this class has been in great measure governed by the state 
of public opinion on the subject. When intoxication was 
respectable they drank freely; now that intoxication has 
become disreputable, they drink sparingly. Finally, in the 
highest circles of Christian society, those in which morality 
and self-restraint are most developed, moderation in drink, 
with many examples of abstinence, has always prevailed, 
and total abstinence is now the ruling characteristic. The 
same is in a decided measure the case in that class of society 
which does not particularly profess to be Christian, but which 
is advanced in education, refined in tastes, and intellectual 
in pursuits. In this connection may be quoted an apposite 
remark from Walt Whitman, as given by one of his friends: 
"The same evening we talked about the abuse of alcohol, 
and we agreed that as mankind advanced in a noble individ- 
uality they would give up stimulants of all kinds, as being 
always in the long run a mistake and unprofitable. He said: 
1 The capital argument against alcohol, that which must 
eventually condemn its use, is this, that it takes away all 
the reserved control, the power of mastership, and therefore 
offends against that splendid pride in himself or herself 
which is fundamental in every man or woman worth any- 
thing.' " To repeat, in other words, what is above said : 
The most advanced mental a,nd moral grades of society are 
to-day in great measure abstinent; those of a lower rank 
mentally and morally, but in whom self-respect and obedi- 
ence to public opinion exist, are, while less abstinent, 
inclined to moderation; while the grosser forms of intem- 
perance are largely confined to the savages of civilization, 
those in whom neither self-respect nor self-control exists, 
and on whom public opinion has but little influence. 

In another sense it seems evident that the class of man- 
kind in which the passions and emotions have freest vent r 



OF THE WORLD. 559 

while reason is least developed, is the class in which intoxi- 
cation has always most grossly prevailed. This is the dis- 
tinguishing mental difference between savage and civilized 
man; but in civilization the same rule prevails, and even in 
its highest classes there is reason to believe that those who 
are most controlled by emotion and imagination are the 
most likely to yield to the allurements of drink, while those 
in whom the reasoning faculty is strongly developed are, 
ordinarily, fully capable of controlling their appetites and 
rarely or never become immoderate drinkers. 

Such conditions, indeed, are not necessary to the highest 
degree of temperate restraint. Women are, as a rule, more 
emotional than men, yet public opinion and moral principle 
have raised them far above the" level of men in this partic- 
ular. Among the Chinese, the Hindus, and the Moham- 
medans religious ordinances have proved sufficient to keep 
whole nations in sobriety for ages; and it is evident that a 
high degree of temperance can exist in common with a low 
degree of civilization. 

Yet if we take into consideration the future condition of 
civilized peoples, with their existing addiction to the intox- 
icating cup, we cannot but see that the development of the 
faculty of reason and of the power of restraint is of the 
utmost importance for the good of coming man. The ad- 
vancement of education and # the growing taste for intellect- 
ual pursuits are steadily lifting mankind to higher levels of 
mentality and control of the passions and appetites. Had 
there been no temperance reform movement, the Americans 
of to-day could scarcely have failed to be more abstinent 
than the Americans of a century ago, and in the coming 
centuries, with the gradual lifting of. all classes to higher 
levels of civilization, a natural and inevitable progress of 
temperance must take place. Yet there are millions to-day 
for whom there is needed the restraint of a more rigid pub- 



560 THE WHITE ANGEL 

lie opinion, and millions more whom only prohibitive law 
can control; and it is to the benefit of these, and to hasten 
the growth of abstinent habits in the masses, that the exist- 
ing temperance reform movement is directed. It cannot do 
harm. All honest citizens should aid it to do good. The 
festering links of intemperance have too long been wound 
in disabling folds around the limbs of mankind. It is for 
the most advanced men and women of the coming years to 
rend asunder these terrible bonds, free man from their de- 
stroying control, and cast in noble triumph to the earth 
the golden bribes and the beastly devices of this anomalous, 
abominable, and barbarous traffic in liquors ! 






"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 



THE FAMOUS CONVERSION OF DR. SMALL. 

[AS RELATED BY HIMSELF*] 

T T is related that there once came into the busy market- 
-*■ place of an Oriental city an aged, decrepit, and travel- 
stained stranger. He moved about listlessly amid the throng 
of people, apparently taking little note of the vast stpres of 
merchandise displayed on either hand. His appearance was 
.so singular, his garb so strange, that he attracted the atten- 
tion of some of the idlers, and they followed him curiously 
to see what he might do in that place. Directly he came 
in front of a stand on which there were gilded cages, and in 
these cages there were little song-birds that had been cap- 
tured in a far-distant mountain and brought there for sale. 
When the old man's eyes fell upon the little captives, he 
seemed to recognize their forlorn condition, after they had 
beaten their wings vainly against the bars of their cages in 
their endeavors to be free. Great tears welled into his eyes 
and began to trickle down his cheeks. Suddenly he thrust 
his hand into the folds of his garment and drew forth some 
strange coins. He purchased one of the cages, held it up, 
and regarded the little captive with interest for a moment; 
then he opened the door and turned the little prisoner out. 

* This thrilling account of his life and conversion has been delivered by Dr. Small 
before over half a million people throughout the Union. 

86 561 



562 " FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

It fluttered uncertainly above the heads of the people, all 
impatient to be away, until kindly Nature restored its 
equilibrium. Then it began to circle upward higher and 
higher, swifter and stronger, until it reached a point from 
which its eye caught a glimpse of its distant mountain 
home. At sight of that well-remembered spot all the long- 
repressed melody of its little nature gushed from its throat 
in a glad song of joy and praise, and it winged its way 
rapidly in that direction. 

One by one the old stranger purchased the cages; one by 
one he turned the little song-birds free. Each one repeated 
the acts of its predecessor, until it, too, caught sight of that 
far-away familiar mountain. Then it burst into its full song 
of thanksgiving and flew swiftly after its mates. 

When the whole flock had been liberated and disappeared 
in the blue distance, and the old stranger turned from his 
completed task, some one said to him curiously, 

"Why do you this strange thing here in the market- 
place?" 

The old man turned to the crowd a face radiant with the 
glow of love and sympathy, and replied: 

"Sirs, I have long been a prisoner myself, and I know 
something of the sweet joys of liberty!" 

And thus to these little songsters of the market-place he 
had testified his gratitude for his own deliverance from bond- 
age by setting them free and sending them on their home- 
ward way rejoicing. 

In like manner I declare unto you that I was once a pris- 
soner myself. I was held in the galling chains of a slavery 
that was far more repressive of the natural melody of the 
human soul than was the bondage of those bars to the cap- 
tive song-birds of the market-place. But when from the 
depths of my captivity and despair I called out for succor 
and salvation, the arm of the omnipotent Son of God was 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 563 

reached down, and He lifted me up from the horrible pit, 
took my feet from the miry clay, set them upon ' ' the Rock 
that is higher than I," and put a glad song of rejoicing upon 
my lips that I have been singing now for five years and more 
with increasing gratitude every day. 

So that I would, if I could, imitate the example of the 
old stranger in the market-place, and with the precious 
coinage of Christ's love and mercy purchase from the hands 
of my countrymen the release from a like captivity of so 
many of the bright and sterling youth of our homes, so 
many of the grand, stalwart men of our generation, so many, 
indeed, of the gray-haired patriarchs of our firesides, who 
are to-day held in the bondage of a terrrible appetite and the 
toils of a great and abominable traffic. 

I think strongly, and sometimes I speak strongly, on the 
subject of the liquor traffic and the need for its national and 
total prohibition. But when you have learned something of 
my sad experience with this tremendous curse, you will be 
willing to grant me the full privilege to feel and speak 
strongly, even bitterly, concerning this devil who worked 
my hurt. 

I had as noble a mother as a boy ever had. She strained 
me to her bosom in my infancy and poured into my young 
nature, self-sacrificingly, all the strong love and devotion of 
her own. She led me by the hand in childhood, stood me by 
her knee in youth, and taught me the lesson of the gospel 
of Christ. She and my father sought to instil into my 
young mind a love for the true, the good, and the beautiful, 
and to implant in my heart, from the word of God, those 
seeds of truth which should spring up in after years and give 
to me a career which should be honorable among my fellow- 
men and acceptable to God. As long as I remained at 
home and had the benefit of their daily counsel and godly 
examples, I was encouraged to believe that those things 



564 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

were taking hold in my nature and would in time give cast 
and color to my career. 

But the time came to me, as it does to many young men, 
when it was necessary that I should leave home to seek, 
first, an education, and afterward a profession in life. I 
passed successfully through the courses of a college career, 
graduated with some distinction to myself, and went to the 
capital city of. a Southern State to prosecute my studies for 
admission to the honorable profession of the law. I pursued 
those studies with all diligence and the fervor of a young 
man's buoyant ambitions, and when thoroughly prepared 
was admitted to the ranks of my chosen profession. I 
entered upon its active duties with every augury of success 
about me. I had ample means at my disposal, and plenty 
of friends high in office and influence in the State and nation, 
and who were ready to advance my fortunes for me as best 
they might. When, however, I began to feel the liberty 
of my manhood, and met and mingled with the men of the 
day upon terms of equality and intimacy, I soon discovered 
among them many things strange to my youthful philosophy. 
I soon saw that many of these men, who stood fairest in the 
public esteem, who had been elevated to positions of honor 
and trust, and who should have been exemplars of all that 
is noble and honorable, were really giving themselves up to 
the slavery of many evil ways. They were indulging those 
very appetites which I had been taught to shun as forbidden 
pleasures to a virtuous life; they were following those ques- 
tionable practices of so-called social life which I had been 
told were the fruitage that grew along the paths of dalliance 
that lead down to the courts of pleasure, worldliness, and 
sin, and end at last in personal degradation, if not eternal 
damnation. 

As I saw those strange things passing before my eyes, I 
naturally reasoned concerning them, as young men always 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 565 

will, and in seeking to reconcile the conflict between the 
teachings of my youth and those actual practices of my fel- 
low-men around me I fell upon that fatal philosophy of the 
world which so often beclouds the judgment of youth and 
leads it astray. I said, "Surely, if these men, who are so 
highly esteemed and who occupy such exalted positions, can 
follow these practices and indulge these appetites without 
detriment to their characters, without loss of power and 
influence in the community, then there cann6t be anything 
so dangerous in them as has been pictured to my youthful 
imagination. ' ' I said my parents and teachers had simply, 
in their overweening love for me, painted these things in too 
dark colors and had drawn too strong an account of their 
possible danger. I said, " Now that I am a man and have 
all of my powers fully upon me — now that I must enter into 
the active competitions of the day, meet and mingle with 
these men upon terms of social and business equality — I shall 
be as able to sustain myself in the practice of these things 
as they have been, and to use them as skilfully for the 
advancement of my popularity and my fortune." So believ- 
ing, I became more readily a victim of the opportunities and 
temptations that were so lavishly thrown about me. 

But soon I found myself in a position where these dissi- 
pations were becoming the daily habits of my life; these 
appetites were daily asserting themselves in my nature and 
taking deeper and deeper hold upon me. As I went on in 
this way, I can see that even then God was gracious to me 
and threw many a warning across my pathway that I should 
have heeded. I would see some one of those strong men, 
who had climbed to a position of high and honorable advan- 
tage in the community, as he would be overtaken by his too- 
frequent indulgence, stagger upon his dizzy altitude, finally 
totter to his fall, and come to the earth with a tremendous 
crash, bringing temporal and eternal ruin to him and his for- 



566 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

tune. I would see some strong and lusty youth like myself, 
who had gone out bravely with just as high and favorable 
auspices, confident of his power to sustain himself in the 
midst of these tides of sin, as he would be overcome like 
some strong swimmer in a flood, sink beneath the lurid 
stream, and leave not a bubble to mark the place of his dis- 
aster. Those things, however, proved to be no warnings to 
me. I said to myself, ' ' These are but the incidents and 
accidents of individual fortune. These particular men were 
not strong in themselves. They did not exercise their will- 
power at the right moment. They did not recognize the 
danger-line, and turn back to a place of safety, as prudent 
men should have done. So, because a few men have been 
weak, because they have over-indulged, lost the power of 
self-control, and finally fallen upon disgrace and dishonor, 
that is no reason why my soul should take alarm, and why / 
should shrink back from these things, depriving myself of 
the pleasures of social life for fear of my future safety. For 
these things which have happened to those men can never 
happen to me. If these passions and appetites of mine should 
ever grow so strong as to threaten to overmaster me and drag 
me down to shame and dishonor, I have strength of will 
enough, I have pride of character enough, I have purpose 
and ambition enough, to summon all my manhood powers 
and throttle these incipient tyrants and put them under my 
feet. I will assert my manhood before the world!" 

I believed, as thoroughly as any young man who ever 
entered upon this course of destruction, that if the day of 
danger should ever come to me, I would be perfectly compe- 
tent to control all its forces and deliver myself safely out of 
all its perils. But I want to say to you to-night, and I say 
it out of the depths and bitterness of seventeen years of des- 
perate experience, that the conviction is as deep as eternity 
upon my soul that that man has never yet been born of 



n 




•$$** 



i± — , — j 



Miss Lolie Lide Small. 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 567 

woman into this world, and never will be, who can give free 
reign to all these lnsts and appetites of his flesh until they 
en wreathe themselves with every fibre of his being, inject 
their terrible poison into every drop of his blood, threatening 
him with imminent, deadly, and eternal peril, and can then 
recover his manhood, purity, and sobriety by the mere 
strength of human will-power! I found, when my danger 
was imminent, when I would gladly have exercised all of 
those powers, I was really so weak through my sins that I 
might as well have tried to bind a raging lion from the 
African desert with a rope of sand as to bind these terrible 
passions of my nature with the mere strength of my own 
resolutions! 

God, in his mercy, gave me a noble and devoted wife. 
She brought to me all the love and loyalty of her nature. 
She soon discovered that I had these unfortunate habits, and, 
though she sought by all the means her love could suggest 
to win me away from those things and have me fix my 
ambitions again upon higher and loftier ideals of life, I used 
to laugh good-humoredly at all her fears and jest at them in 
that self-sufficient way we men so often affect with our wives. 
I would say, "My dear, you are very sensitive about these 
matters. You do not understand the ways of the world. 
You do not know how we men outside, who have to meet 
and mingle with each other, must yield something to public 
opinion and not run counter to the currents of common life 
around us;" and with a little of that damnable and foolish 
philosophy I thought I had dissipated her fears, when I 
found in after-life I had only driven them back to brood in 
the solitude of her own soul. 

Then God sent me little children to my home. Sometimes 
I would stand and look down into their little faces as they 
were sleeping in their cradles, and seemed to see the very 
smiles of God reflected upon their innocent features as they 



568 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

lay there dreaming of the heaven from which they had come 
to brighten my home. But in those days I never raised my 
eyes to look beyond their cradle-bars to the limited horizon 
of their young lives. If I had, I might have seen even then 
the cloud no larger than a man's hand conjured up by my 
evil practices, and threatening to do what it soon did accom- 
plish — overspread the whole firmament of their young lives 
with a gloom and despair lightened by no ray of hope. 

So the time went on, and these things increased as the 
years went by. They took deeper and deeper hold upon 
me until (without going over all of the miserable details of 
the descent of a man from virtuous courses into the depths 
of dissipation and degradation) I need only say to you that 
I came at last to that inevitable day in the history of every 
man who follows these courses. I came to the place and to 
the hour where I was forced to recognize that most humil- 
iating fact to the conscience of a man — that I was no longer 
the master of myself; that I had yielded myself a victim to 
these appetites and passions of my flesh until they had 
bound me as in triple chains of brass and steel, and as if 
some infernal spirit from the pit below had ascended the 
throne of authority in my soul, had seized the reins of my 
life in his own devilish grasp and was driving me downward 
to hell at his own mad pleasure. When I found myself in 
that condition, realized the inevitable logic of it, knew it 
must end in eternal shame and horror, the instincts of my 
manhood revolted against such a despicable ending of my 
career. I paused and listened, for the first time seriously 
and kindly, to the importunities of my friends and the 
prayers of my faithful wife. At their suggestion I turned 
to others in the hope that they might be able to help me 
out of that terrible condition into which I now realized 
that I had so recklessly fallen. 

I turned naturally at first to the physicians. I thought 



-FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 569 

perhaps those medical gentlemen were right who said to me, 
and who still say to men in the same condition, that this 
appetite for strong drink, which with me was the beginning 
and continuing cause of all my trouble (as it is with so 
many people), was simply a disease of the flesh that might 
be medicated out of a man. I sought out the very best 
medical skill in this country. I travelled far and wide to 
reach it. I put myself in the hands of the most eminent 
specialists. I took all of their medicines and faithfully 
followed out all their prescriptions to the letter, believing 
they would be able to deliver me safely out of that condi- 
tion and set my feet again upon the highway of sobriety 
and usefulness. But after they had tried their various 
methods, and these had ended in so many failures, I was 
forced at last, by the logic of my own experience, to give 
up all idea of being delivered from that condition by the 
help of the doctors. 

And I want to say to you that, from my own experience 
with them, as well as the observations and testimonies 
which have come to me in the last five years of active 
evangelistic and temperance labor, I am convinced that the 
medical man of this nineteenth century who tells the vic- 
tim of the alcohol appetite that this trouble is simply a dis- 
ease of the flesh, to be medicated out of him, to be con- 
trolled and conquered with drugs, is telling him a deliberate, 
wilful, and outrageous lie ! I know that some people will 
hesitate to endorse that challenge, which is thrown in the 
face of the medical science of the age, but I submit it to 
your own common honesty and common sense, that if the 
medical fraternity of the world know any cure for this hor- 
rible epidemic of the nation, this terrible throat disease of 
humanity, that is taking its millions out of every genera- 
tion down to death and hell, it is about time they began to 
produce the cured patients, or else took in their signs and 



57° "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

kept their peace. I know that they talk very learnedly 
about " dipsomania " and u inebriety " and "alcoholism," 
and all that sort of stuff, but it is the veriest bosh ! When 
I hear them going on with that jargon I feel somewhat as the 
old lady did who attended one of Colonel Ingersoll' s lectures. 
She was a very pious old party herself, but she had heard so 
much about these " in-fiddles " that she was very anxious 
to see one of them. She heard that Colonel Ingersoll was 
chief of the cult, and when he came along she thought that 
she would repress her scruples sufficiently to go and see 
what one of these creatures looked like. So she attended 
the lecture. When Colonel Ingersoll threw the Bible down 
contemptuously and said, l ' Why, that book ! I could write 
a better book than that myself in three months !" the old 
lady jumped to her feet and shouted, "You'd better get at 
it, Bob; there is money in it." (daughter.) She knew it was 
the most popular book in the universe — that more Bibles 
are being sold every day than have been sold of Henry 
George's Progress and Poverty, or Bellamy's Looking Back- 
ward, or Mrs. Ward's Robert Elsmere, or any other of those 
books the public make such marvel over if a hundred thou- 
sand copies are haply sold. We are selling millions of the 
Bible every year, and the people are reading them; and the 
good old woman thought, very properly, that Mr. Ingersoll 
was standing much in the light both of his fame and his 
fortune by not writing his marvellous book. So I say to 
the doctors that there are a million patients ready to-day in 
the United States of America to be put gladly into the 
hands of any one of them who can cure this terrible dis- 
ease of drunkenness. If they want to make money, and 
make it fast, just let them prove to the world that they can 
cure this awful plague. But they know they cannot do it, 
and every reputable and honorable physician in the world 
will frankly tell you so. The only ones who tell you to the 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 57 1 

contrary, and who are anxious to exploit with you on that 
subject, are those little M. D.s, you know, of whom we get 
about two crops a year out of the medical mills that are run- 
ning all over the country. They turn them out by the 
platoon and the regiment on a helpless public, when the 
only thing under the heavens that they have to recommend 
them as doctors is about a square yard of sheepskin, a bottle 
of quinine pills, and a jug of mean liquor ! When they 
find a fellow with some sort of trouble that the quinine 
won't cure, they resort to the jug and keep him drunk until 
he dies. Then they give a certificate to bury him with, in 
which they solemnly certify that he died of "heart failure." 
That " M. D." at the end of their name means "machine 
doctor ' ' (laughter), or ' ' maker of drunkards, ' ' or anything 
else that you choose. 

I finally turned away from them, very much in the temper 
of the woman of whom we read in the Scriptures, that "she 
had spent her all on them and was nothing advantaged, " 
though I found them out sooner than she did, and quit while 
I had some money left. 

I turned next to those antidotes for the liquor habit, those 
various patent nostrums and preparations, that you have seen 
advertised in the newspapers — peculiar pills and powders 
that you give to the drunkard in his tea and coffee when he 
don't know anything about it, and he wakes up in the morn- 
ing a beautiful, red-nosed angel, with long white wings and 
flowing robes! — a kind of " Presto- ch ange " business (laugh- 
ter) whereby you exchange a sot at supper for a saint at 
breakfast! You know that is a lie on the face of it. If a 
man had ever discovered any sort of preparation that would 
produce that magical transformation in human nature, it 
would take a factory forty acres big to supply the demand in 
this State alone. 

I confess that I did not have much faith in them, but I 



57 2 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

remembered that a great many of the leading discoveries and 
most useful inventions that have blessed humanity have been 
fallen upon accidentally by men who really were not in search 
of the thing they found; and I did not know but that these 
chemical fellows, fooling around with their pots and pans, 
might have struck the combination I was looking for. I 
thought I had better try them anyhow, and my wife and I 
began to search out these things. We hunted them out in 
this country and abroad. We spent somewhere in the neigh- 
borhood of a thousand dollars procuring these various prepa- 
rations and recipes, these foreign drugs and herbs — every- 
thing that promised to have any effect on this terrible appe- 
tite that was ruining me in body and soul. When we had 
secured them, and I had tried them one after another, only 
to find that they were temporary substitutes, and as soon as 
their influence passed away the old appetite would reassert 
itself with all its old-time fury, I was forced at last to throw 
these things aside in disgust. I am sorry to see that some 
of our religious papers in this country are still publishing 
the advertisements of these infernal frauds. I would as soon 
advertise the Louisiana Lottery or a faro-bank as to advertise 
one of those things. They are rascally inventions, every 
one of them, for the purpose of trading upon the sorrow and 
anxieties of people who have unfortunate drunkards on their 
hands. 

When I had abandoned the trial of these things I hardly 
knew what I should turn to next, until I fell into the hands 
of another set of Job's comforters — those kind, accommodat- 
ing people who are always around willing to get you into 
more trouble if they can. This time I fell into the hands of 
the foolosophers ! They told me that my troubles were alto- 
gether due to my environment. They <said I was the victim 
of a vicious environment. I did not know I had one before, 
but thev convinced me of it. Thev said that the wav out of 




Samuel White Small, Jr. 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." S73 

my troubles was to change my environment. They said, 
' ' You must get away from this place where you have fallen 
into these habits. You must go where you won't meet these 
old companions with whom it is so natural to go in and take 
a drink every time you encounter each other. You must get 
away from these saloons where you are accustomed to drop 
in and stay for a season debauching yourself. You must go 
where you will have a sort of cleaner atmosphere, other 
associates, higher responsibilities and duties, and you can 
strengthen your resolution, straighten up in your manhood, 
and enter upon a more industrious and virtuous course." 
They talked so learnedly about the business that I fell into 
the scheme. I tried their method, only to find that they are 
like those doctors who, when they get hold of a case they 
know they can't cure, tell the patient it is about time for 
him to travel — that he needs change of air! They are like 
those fellows who manufacture "Rough on Rats." They 
dori* t want the patient to die in the house. If you ever get so 
sick that your doctor tells you it is about time for you to go 
to Florida or Southern California, you had better make your 
will before you go, because he don't naturally expect you 
back until they ship you back in a box, C. O. D., travelling 
expenses included. 

With the help of Senator Hill from our State, who was an 
old friend of my family and myself, I obtained a position in 
connection with the official staff ot the United States Senate. 
I thought if I should get up there to the national capital, in 
daily contact and association with the distinguished states- 
men of the country, who were industriously engaged in solv- 
ing the great problems of state-craft and humanity, and hold- 
ing the country up by the tail to keep it from going through 
to smash, that I would have every inducement in the world 
to be sober and dignified and keep myself in proper condition. 
I went up there very buoyantly, but I had not been long 



574 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

around that end of the national Capitol until I discovered that 
the atmosphere in that vicinity was not very conducive to 
the sort of reform I was seeking. It is true I got quite 
familiar with the statesmen — I got drunk with a number 
of them! 

After I had stayed with those statesmen for about two* 
years, I found I was not getting better very fast. I con- 
cluded I had better get away from there while I could, so I 
did what very few officeholders ever do in this country — I 
resigned voluntarily. 

Next, I was appointed by the President of the United 
States upon an important mission abroad in the interest of 
the Government. I took my wife and children and we jour- 
neyed abroad, and my official residence was fixed at last in 
the city of Paris. That I found to be the most unfortunate 
event in my whole career, for there I was brought into daily, 
intimate social and official contact with the representatives 
of the great nations of the civilized world, who were gath- 
ered together there, showing forth the customs and habits 
of their people. I was brought thus face to face with many 
novel forms of dissipation to which I had been a stranger up 
to that time. These things appealed by their fascinations to 
my adventurous and curious disposition much more strongly 
than all of my resolutions against them, so that little by little 
the restraints which I had thought to put upon myself were 
abandoned, and I drifted out upon all the lurid tides of that 
great moral maelstrom which circles and centres and goes 
down to death and hell in that great modern Babylon of the 
world. When it seemed as if my peril was most imminent, 
God seemed graciously to interpose in my behalf. He lifted 
me from that awful condition, stretched me upon a bed of 
sickness, which stopped my mad career for a season, and 
seemed as if it might at last prove to be a bed of death. One 
of the most skilled physicians in France was called to my 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 575 

bedside. He came and saw my condition and heard trie 
incidents of my personal history. He took more than a pro- 
fessional interest in my case, and promised my wife and 
friends that he would do his best to restore me to health and 
strength, and, if possible, deliver me from the terrible appe- 
tite which had produced that condition of things. He did 
restore me to health and strength, for in the course of a few 
weeks I stood upon my feet with all of my accustomed vigor;, 
but when he applied his tests skilfully to see whether he had 
reached and removed the cause of the trouble, he was amazed 
himself to find he had not phazed it in the slightest. It was 
simply lying there, under the artificial repression he had put 
upon it, ready to spring into a consuming conflagration at 
the very first spark of temptation. When he had made that 
discovery he was honest enough to say to my wife and friends 
that he did not believe there was anything known to the 
medical science of the nineteenth century, or anything to be 
found in the pharmacopoeias of the world, that would ever 
divorce me from that horrible appetite. All that he could 
say with reference to my possible future was that perhaps, in 
some mad orgy of drink, I might suffer a lesion of the brain 
that would plunge me into paralysis, or that in some mad 
mania produced by drink or the lack of it suicide might end 
a career that was daily growing more miserable to myself and 
all about me. 

With that terrible prediction overshadowing our lives and 
shutting out all hope for the future, my wife and little chil- 
dren returned with me to this country. We went back to 
our home in the city of Atlanta. I resumed my duties there 
as one of the editors of the Atlanta Constitution and as 
official reporter in the courts of the State. I had those 
positions given me by the kindness of my friends, who still 
persisted in trying to win me away from the destroying habit 
and have me fix myself again in a position of honor and use- 



576 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

fulness. But instead of using these labors of love as helps 
out of my desperate condition, I simply made them so much 
more the means to widen the circles of my dissipation and 
deepen the depths of my indulgence. At last, as the years 
rolled on and my career grew more and more reckless, there 
came down over my soul that gloom of despair which for- 
bade me ever to hope there might be a better day or a 
brighter way for me. I seemed to reach a time where I 
recognized that my friends had ceased to struggle for my sal- 
vation, and seemed to be simply steadying my staggering 
footsteps as they went down to a drunkard's grave and a 
drunkard's hell. I thought I saw the day when my wife 
came back from the sepulchre in which she had laid away 
her hopes of my final recovery for ever. I remember, with 
a poignant remorse which I shall never be able to throw off 
in this world, the day when I saw that my little children had 
come to the age where they could understand that I was no 
longer the father to them that God intended me to be, and 
instead of running and leaping into my arms with kisses and 
caresses and happy welcomes at my home-coming, they 
would listen for my staggering footsteps upon the stairs, and 
hide themselves in other parts of the house to escape the 
presence of a drunken and debauched father. It was while 
I was in that terrible condition, my wife sitting in the midst 
of the desolation of our home, not knowing what day the 
sheriff might come and bid her be gone from under the very 
roof that covered her from the storms of winter and the heats 
of summer, not knowing what night I might be brought 
home either dead already or weltering in my life's blood from 
some of the terrible wounds from knife and pistol, the scars 
of which I bear upon my body to-night as the marks of the 
beasts of the bar-room, — it was when she had only her pray- 
ers to God as a relief for her overcharged soul that there 
came to her one day the thought that there was yet one unex- 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." S77 

ploited avenue of escape. Summoning to herself all of her 
womanly courage, putting behind her those scruples and 
delicacies of pride which at another time might have 
restrained her, and showing forth that heroism which only 
a woman and a wife can show under such circumstances, she 
determined to make one last effort in the forlorn hope of sav- 
ing her husband and the father of her children. 

She went to the judge of the court of which I was an 
official. She said to him, "Judge Hammond, I know you 
are my husband's friend, You have held official stations 
here side by side. You have exerted over him all the 
influence you could command ; but, judge, matters are 
growing very desperate with him now. Something must 
be done speedily to save him if he can be saved at all. I 
have but one hope left. I want you to write out for me, in 
the terms of the statute of the State of Georgia made and 
provided in just such cases, an official, legal notice that I 
may have it served on every barkeeper and liquor-dealer in 
the city of Atlanta, commanding him in the terms of the 
law, under threat of its penalties, not to sell my husband 
liquor in any shape, manner, or form, under any circum- 
stances whatever or upon any plea whatever." Judge 
Hammond drew up that official notice from the Code of 
the State of Georgia. My wife had copies of it printed in 
blank. She sat down with her heart almost breaking and 
her hand trembling, and signed and addressed every one of 
them. She had them served by a trusty official on every 
barkeeper and liquor-dealer in the city of Atlanta. Those 
men received those notices, given in the solemn terms of 
the law, backed by the authority of the Commonwealth, 
some of them blistered with the hot tears that had fallen 
from my wife's eyes in the act of signing them — And they 
obeyed them? No, my fellow-citizens ! They took them 
and stuck them up in the most prominent places in their 

37 



578 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

bar-rooms. They called the attention of every drunken 
loafer and idle vagabond about their dens of infamy to 
them. They made them a laughing-stock and a jest for 
the drunken rabble of the whole city, and, instead of pay- 
ing the slightest heed to them in the world, continued to 
sell me drink over their bars with the same impunity as if 
there was never a written law in the world's history or a 
feeling of compassion in the human breast. 

Some one will say, "Why did not the law stop them?" 
I presume for identically the same reason it does not stop 
the same order of outlaws from violating your laws right 
here in your own State. You have some laws on the sub- 
ject of the vending of liquor in this State which have some 
little merit and common decency about them. You com- 
mand them not to sell on the Sabbath day, and yet there is 
not an honest man in the State who will go bond for the 
fidelity with which the liquor-dealers of this State keep that 
law. You have a law which says that while they may sell 
to the adult citizen, they shall not sell to your sons until 
they become of legal age to be free traders in that damna- 
ble commodity. Yet every young man who goes staggering 
along a highway or by-way in the State, with the flames of 
intoxication in his forehead and the taint of liquor upon his 
breath, is a living, staggering witness to the fact that these 
infernal outlaws have trampled your statutes under their feet 
with impunity. Why don't your law stop this ? Of course 
you understand that in speaking of my case I refer to 
Georgia, where, if anywhere, there might be some excuse 
for the law not operating with perfect precision. That is 
down there in the heart of the " Solid South," in that semi- 
barbaric region of our country where we are popularly sup- 
posed to do nothing for a living or for amusement except 
curse and drink liquor and kill " niggers" before breakfast! 
But up here, in this grand old State of the North, with so 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 579 

much of ancient reputation for honor and patriotism and 
culture and Christianity and law-abiding spirit, surely there 
is no reason under heaven why your law should not operate 
with perfect precision! Why don't your law stop them? 

I think I can tell you the reason why it did not stop them 
down in Georgia, and why it does not stop them with you. 
It is because the law is not a stopper ! . The more you exam- 
ine that, the more you will see in it. I was an officer of the 
law ten years myself, and in all of that time I never saw the 
law stop anything. If you ( think that the writing out of 
some nice, elegantly phrased laws on a statute-book has got 
any terrors for a fellow who has gone down to the moral 
degradation that enables him to be a successful saloon-keep- 
er, you don't know the breed of animals that you are legis- 
lating for. But, unfortunately for me, I do. I associated 
with them intimately for fifteen years. I patronized them 
daily from the rising of the sun to far beyond the hour of 
midnight. I poured all of their miserable stuffs down my 
throat, debauching my body, destroying my powers of use- 
fulness to myself, to my family, to society, and to God. I 
took the bloom of health out of the cheek of my faithful 
wife, never to return to it again iu all of its freshness and 
beauty. I took the light of life and hope out of her eyes 
for twelve long, dismal, miserable years. I wrote an inde- 
finable sorrow on the features of my innocent little children, 
and I poured my hard earnings by thousands of dollars annu- 
ally into the tills of the saloon. I tell you I would as soon 
go out here to-night to your cemetery and read the riot act 
of the State to some prowling hyena that had invaded its 
sacred precinct, drawn forth the half-putrefied corpse of 
your innocent babe buried a week ago, and was making a 
feast of it under the pall of midnight, as to talk about law 
simply to these outlaws of the nineteenth century ! The 
only law that a saloon-keeping, liquor-selling man has ever 



5 So "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

been known to respect since the corner-stone of the world 
was laid is that which comes to him in the shape of a 
sheriff weighing about two hundred pounds, and about 
one hundred and ninety-five pounds of him solid back- 
bone, with a pair of hand-cuffs in one hand and a commit- 
ment to the county jail in the other. If you want these 
saloon-keeping fellows to have any respect for your law, you 
must get it up in the shape of an honest, courageous, oath- 
keeping official, with a pair of raw-hide boots on him, and 
start him out after them. 1 would not give you a punched 
nickel to-night for all the law you have got in the State that 
you cannot find anywhere except bound up in sheepskin for 
other sheep's kin to practice. We American people are so 
•optimistic, we have such an exalted opinion of our own 
ability to run the universe, that we have been worshipping 
a great fetich in the name of LAW for over a hundred years 
as absolutely and abjectly as ever an African worshipped an 
idol of wood or stone. If I could photograph the popular 
ideal of law as it floats through the average American brain, 
and throw a picture of it upon a stereopticon canvas, you 
would see an object the like of which the eyes of mortal 
man never rested on before. It would take the shape of a 
great, gigantic, double-jointed, back-acting, Bogardus kick- 
ing-machine, coming down the middle of the big road, 
regulating everything on both sides at once ! We think 
all that we have to do, in order to regulate anything that 
goes wrong, is just to blow a horn, ring a bell, get a crowd 
together, form ourselves in a hollow square, pass a little law 
on the subject, and it will be all right. We have got to 
understand the essential fact that gives life and vigor to all 
forms of government. That is, that all' of our laws, how- 
ever excellently they may be devised, however eloquently 
they may be phrased, are as dead and helpless as Adam was 
until God breathed the breath of life and pow r er into him, 



-FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 581 

until you put into those laws the faith, the activity, and the 
courage of honest men. You want the liquor-dealing fel- 
lows and all other evils in your community to be prohibited 
for the preservation of the public peace, the protection of 
your homes, the safety of your sons, and the defence of 
your daughters. You will not get that done for you by 
merely pointing the written law at them. The place to get 
relief is right here at the ballot-box in the ward where you 
vote. Until you get independent American manhood enough 
in your spirit and sand enough in your gizzard to throw off 
the yoke and harness of mere partisanship, and stand up a 
bold, brave, cultured, Christian citizen at the polls, voting 
for no man under God's heaven, no matter what label he 
carries, unless he has the courage of his convictions, will 
stand to his oath, and make these law-breakers dance to the 
music of the outraged statutes, you never will get any peace 
from these devils. 

Talk about the law stopping them! The last time we saw 
the law try to stop anything in this country the spectacle was 
sufficient to have disgusted any honest man. That was sev- 
eral months ago, when the Supreme Court of the United 
States got out in the middle of the national highway in its 
long, judicial, funereal robes, and held up its hands in con- 
stitutional horror at the very idea of a great, sovereign State 
of the Union preventing the debauchment of its citizens by 
the liquor- traffickers. The court said, in effect: " You can 
stop any of your own citizens from making and selling liquor 
if you want to, but if you interfere with any of these red- 
nosed rascals, with their demijohns, from over the State line, 
you will be interfering with the constitutional prerogative of 
Congress to regulate commerce between the States." They 
made as big a row over it as if Fort Sumter had been fired 
on again. When they got off that revolting decision every 
sot in America, every swill-drinking loafer around a beer- 



582 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

saloon, every beef-necked bartender, every bay-windowed 
brewer and distiller, every thug and plug-ugly, every gam- 
bler and harlot, all of the riff- raff of creation and damnation 
between the two oceans, stood up and solemnly approved the 
decision of the Supreme Court! They said it was u the most 
wisest and justest decision ever made on earth;" and the 
Supreme Court had decency enough to adjourn and retire 
from public exhibition for about three months. When it had 
fumigated itself and got out into the fresh air again, the first 
thing it did, as a sort of expiation for its miserable offence, 
was to declare in a decision that ' ' no man in the United 
States of America has a natural or constitutional right to sell 
liquor," and before any man now can sell liquor legally on 
the territory of this great republic he has got first to debauch 
the people of the State or the city down to the low level 
where they will consent to sell him a license to do it. With 
the law thus interpreted, the responsibility for the damnable 
ravages of the liquor traffic does not lie any longer at the 
doors of the saloon-keepers, but it lies on the soul of every 
man who casts a ballot to license the traffic. Judas Iscariot 
could have washed the stain of his apostasy and treason to 
his Lord from his soul with Pear's soap as easily as a Chris- 
tian man in America can wash away the infamy of his par- 
ticipation in the liquor traffic when he goes up to the polls 
and votes to license it! The Supreme Court — hear it, you 
men who are voting for these liquor parties that are keeping 
the liquor traffic upon the people of this country — the 
Supreme Court of the United States has established it for 
ever in this Government that no man has a right to sell 
liquor until the public give it to him; and there is not a pro- 
cess known to the jurisprudence of the United States of 
America that any man, refused a license, can sue out and 
compel the authorities to give it to him, because he has no 
right to stand upon except the consent of the public. And 




Robert Toombs Small. 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 585 

so, I repeat it, because of this new phase of the matter under 
that decision of the Supreme Court, the whole responsibility 
of the liquor traffic now has been cast upon the individual 
citizen and his ballot. 

But when the court got off that first decision there was a 
great jubilee all through liquordom, and the big proprietors, 
who had all the money that belonged to that crowd, said, 
"Let us go up to Washington and attend the funeral." 
Somebody said, "What funeral are you talking about?" 
They said, "The funeral of Prohibition. It is dead, you 
know. The Supreme Court has sat on it and mashed it and 
rolled over on it, and the poor thing is dead. We ought to 
go up now and attend to the funeral. ' ' They started thither, 
but before they got there the indignant protests of the out- 
raged honest citizenry of America got there ahead of them, 
and were piled up so enormously high under the noses of the 
Representatives and Senators of the republic that they did 
not dare to ignore them; and we found out that, while we 
had Congressmen who had no particular moral scruples upon 
the liquor question, they were too cowardly to go home and 
face their constituents without setting that matter right. 
They passed a proper bill, and the President of the United 
States, although he had the whole liquor business of America 
tugging at his elbow to keep him from putting his name to 
it, found it very convenient to write that beautiful autograph 
of his on the bottom. So, when those mourners got up there, 
and the smoke and dust of the agitation blew away, and they 
looked around for the corpse, lo! it was not Prohibition that 
was dead! It was their miserable little old " Original Pack- 
age" that had got smashed in the melee. So they were 
obliged to postpone their funeral on account of the failure 
of the corpse, but they left their dead brat on our hands to 
be buried. We have been trying to get it underground ever 
since, but it is an awfully difficult thing to handle. It is 



584 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

like one of these old-fashioned feather beds. When you put 
it down at one end, it bobs up at the other. If you put it 
down at both ends, it bulges in the middle. If you put it 
down in the middle, it is up at both ends. The only way to 
keep the thing down at all is just to lay all over it at once! 
That is the reason why a great many of us in this country 
have set our standard far out ahead of the marching column, 
and planted it upon the mount of total, unconditional, 
national, constitutional PROHIBITION! We propose to 
march up to it, putting our necks under the yoke of honest 
Christian duty, and drag the old ark of the Government the 
length of our lives toward the consummation of this great 
issue. 

I know there are some people who do not believe we can 
do it, but I remember that there was a fellow who sat upon 
the very last peak of earth's mountains as Noah went sail- 
ing by in the ark, and said : "You can go on with your old 
scow. It ain't going to rain much, anyhow!" But he has 
not come in out of the wet yet. (Laughter.) Nearly every- 
where I go I meet a lot of these little, red-nosed, flannel- 
mouthed disciples of the devil and the distilleries, sitting 
on the ends of beer-kegs and dry-goods boxes, "yawpin', 
yawpin', yawpin' !" I can always tell when they are 
around by the sound of their voices and the size of their 
ears, and the whole burden of their yawping is that " Pro- 
hibition won't prohibit." I have heard them until I am 
tired. When one of them gets that off at me now and tells 
me, "I believe, you know, something ought to be done, 
but Prohibition won't prohibit," I feel something like my 
Irish friend did down in the hotel when they brought him 
a big plate of hash. That was the first time he had ever seen 
that staple article of American diet. He was a little doubt- 
ful about crawling up around it until he had investigated a 
little further. He was feeling around to see what it was 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 585 

made out of. Directly he thought he had found out, and 
he got mad. He called the waiter. He said, "Waiter, 
come here a minute. Would you be kind enough to take 
that back to the gentleman that chawed it, and tell him, 
bedad, he can swallow it ; I don't want it." I have seen 
Prohibition in all the forms in which it is being tried in this 
country, and the logic of the whole situation — I declare it, 
and defy anybody to successfully contradict me— is simply 
this: that Prohibition does prohibit always where there are 
honest and faithful men in charge of the law, and it is a 
failure nowhere except in those places where the officers of 
the law are a set of pusillanimous puppies or a set of per- 
jured scoundrels ! 

You can learn whether Prohibition will prohibit if you 
will come down to Georgia. I would like to take you out 
to one of those big brick-yards we run out in the neighbor- 
hood of Atlanta on the Pharaoh system for the entertain- 
ment of the guests of the State. We have a lot of fellows 
out there who wear the public uniform, on which the stripes 
run around instead of up and down. We had a lot of fel- 
lows down there who did not think Prohibition would pro- 
hibit. They let the devil and the distillers fill their little 
heads full of the idea that it would not work ! They went 
fooling with the thing, and they have been working for the 
State ever since ! (Laughter.) You go in and ask one of 
them now : "Mister, I understand you didn't think Prohi- 
bition would prohibit. What do you think about it now?" 
He will tell you, "Well, stranger, my opportunities for 
knowing what is going on outside are rather limited just 
at present, but it is prohibiting me all right." (Laughter.) 
You know that is what a prohibition law is for, and that is 
all. It is not one of these mystical things that are to take 
the place of the Lord Almighty and of His Holy Spirit in 
the regeneration of the human race. It is simply a law to 



586 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT," 

prevent all law-abiding citizens from dealing in liquor out- 
side, and punish all of the other kind for dealing in it 
inside, of the penitentiary. When it does that it is a per- 
fect success! Whenever you see a law like that operating 
with the perfect precision that I have seen in some parts of 
this country, it is a little deceptive. It is like one of those 
big buzz-saws up here in the lumber region, going about a 
thousand revolutions a minute. You do not know whether 
it is going at all sometimes until you back up against it ! 
Then you never forget it. (Laughter.) 

They say "it don't operate in Maine." Well, they have 
held on to it for about thirty-nine years, anyhow, and are 
not trying to trade it off for anything you have got down 
here in this State. Those Maine people are no fools. They 
liave furnished some pretty good timber to the country. 
Some of you, it seems, can't find a wiser thing to do than 
to vote for one of them as President of the United States 
every chance you get. I expect you will vote for him again 
next year. But I can testify that those Maine people are 
folks of pretty good sense, and they do not hold on to the 
hot end of a poker any longer than the ordinary citizen. I 
will tell you right now — and you can write it down in your 
memorandum-books, and stick to it around the world with- 
out fear of successful contradiction — that whenever the peo- 
ple of Maine cling to a law for thirty-nine years solidly, you 
can depend upon it they have figured the case out carefully, 
and have found out they have got the better end of the 
bargain. 

They say it don't prohibit out West, and the farther you 
get from the West the more you can hear about it not pro- 
hibiting out there. It is wonderful how much you people 
over here in the East know about things you don't know 
anything about. (Laughter.) It is a fact. I can hear more 
in Philadelphia in two days about Prohibition not prohibit- 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 587 

ing in Iowa than I can find out in Iowa itself by staying 
there two months. It is an absolute fact. I have lectured 
all up one side of Iowa and down the other and through the 
middle, and then see-sawed, and the testimony universally 
out there is that it is prohibiting. If you could see those 
little boot-legging fellows scurrying around trying to dodge 
it, you would think it prohibited. A man told me of one 
experience he had out there. He said he stopped at a hotel 
and thought he would try to see just how the thing did work, 
and he said to the landlord, "Captain, can't you tell me 
where I can get a drink?" — He said, " No, you can't get any 
in this town." — He said, " I know. I understand how that 
is, you know. I know how it is myself. But then, say, 
can't you just sort of put me on to the racket, you know, so 
I can just get a little ? I am sort of sick, you know, this 
morning. I am in the habit, you know, of having just a lit- 
tle, and I am obliged to have it. " — " No," he said, " I can't." 
— "Oh," I said, "come now! You know I am one of the 
boys. It is all right with me. I won't give it away. Just 
sort of put me on to the thing, you know." — He said, " I 
will tell you. You go down there where that telegraph-pole 
is at the corner. Then you lean up against the telegraph- 
pole. Directly a fellow will come by with a wooden leg. 
Then you say So-and-so (giving the word), and he will say 
So-and-so. Then you follow him. ' ' — He said, ' ' I went down 
there and leaned up against the telegraph-pole. Directly a 
fellow came stumping along. He came up by me and sort 
of looked at me. I gave him the word. He gave me the 
answer back. Then he stumped off down the street, and I 
took after him. He led me around six or seven blocks, quite 
out beyond the edge of the town, went around down by the 
fence of a church into a graveyard that was there, turned in 
through some broken palings, got behind an old receiving- 
vault, and sat down. I looked around the corner of the thing 



588 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

and said, ' ' Here ! in the name of common sense what does 
all this mean?"— He said, "All right! all right!" and 
grabbed hold of his old leg and went to twisting it off. — I 
said, "Say, mister, what are you up to?" — He said, "All 
right, I have got her in here." (daughter. ) — And he said, 
" I concluded I didn't want any." (Laughter. ) But many 
a fellow would take a drink out of a cork leg that way, and 
then come away and swear Prohibition did not prohibit. 

Talk about passing laws to regulate the sale of liquor! 
My wife appealed to the law, only to find it a miserable 
mockery as long as it left the liquor-dealers free to profit in 
their business. The only relief you will ever get under 
God's heaven is when you get to the point where you are 
willing to forego all other considerations and stamp the 
infernal traffic into the dirt where it belongs. 

I was just oscillating between the extremes of mental 
imbecility on the one side and suicide on the other wheu 
it pleased God, by the moving of His Holy Spirit mysteri- 
ously upon me, to lead me to a day of sober awakening to 
the real horrors of my situation. I awaked in the full 
enjoyment of my sober faculties in my home on the 13th 
day of September— a glorious Sabbath morning — in 1885. 
My little children came to my bedside to greet me with 
"good-morning" kisses, but I saw the little ones as they 
half shrunk back, hardly knowing whether they dared to 
come. Their timidity and the knowledge of what caused 
it struck home to my soul, and I was humiliated by the 
thought that I had brought this sort of feeling into the 
breasts of my own children. I said to myself, "These 
little ones look as if they thought the very last spark of love 
for them in my heart has died out for ever. What can I do 
to-day to prove to them that it is not so ? What can I do 
to bring back some smiles to their little faces, some joy and 
gladness to their little hearts?" It suggested itself to me 








♦^^W\y\^^^. 



Rev. Sam Jones. 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 589 

that I had heard through the week of those great meetings 
that were going on just fifty miles north of Atlanta under 
the leadership of the Rev. Sam Jones. People were gather- 
ing from all parts of Northern Georgia, Alabama, and Ten- 
nessee to hear that marvellous man as he preached the gos- 
pel of salvation. I had never seen Mr. Jones ; I did not 
know him personally. I had heard much of him, and from 
what I had heard of his methods and mannerisms I had a 
supreme contempt for that sort of a preacher. But simply 
for the purpose of giving the children a day's outing and 
letting them see the vast tabernacle and the crowded con- 
course of people, with the interesting scenes that might be 
enacted, I took them to the train and we went to Carters- 
ville for that Sabbath day. They insisted on going inside 
the tabernacle. When we got underneath the tent we found 
all places crowded, except there was room to seat the little 
ones on the edge of the stand where Mr. Jones stood to 
preach. I took a seat at the reporters' table, where a 
reporter of our paper was attending to his duties on that 
occasion. I had, of course, the privilege, as a newspaper- 
man, of occupying that position. While sitting there I 
concluded I would pull out my note-book and keep myself 
busy as somewhat of an apology for being in that conspicu- 
ous place. As Mr. Jones began his sermon I looked at him 
carefully and thought, " You are a strange sort of individual. 
You have made quite a name for yourself suddenly in the 
world. I will follow you along to see what manner of man 
you are, anyhow." I began to take notes. He took his 
text and swung out into the course of his sermon, and began 
to preach that marvellous sermon of his on ' ( Conscience, 
Record, God, and the Judgment." I soon discovered that 
there w r as a 7nan preaching there, and he was preaching 
good common sense, which sounded very uncommon to me 
that day. As he preached I found that he was going down 



59° "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

the way of the sinner's life, just the way that was familiar 
to me. I said, ' * You are going my way. I will keep on 
with you a little while longer, to see how much you under- 
stand of that. ' ' I soon found that he was perfectly familiar 
with it, because he had trodden it all himself. While he 
preached, the power of God seemed to come upon him in 
more demonstration than I had ever seen it on mortal man 
before. The arrows of conviction flew thick and fast into 
the midst of that vast audience. The tremendous magnet- 
ism of the man seemed to hold and mould the feelings of 
the people at his will. When he closed his wonderful per- 
oration and called upon them to come and surrender to God, 
they literally streamed by scores and hundreds down the 
aisles of that great tabernacle and filled the altar-space, 
with tears and confessions calling upon God for salvation. 
Soon the shouts of rejoicing began to arise as souls were 
born anew into the kingdom of God. I sat there as deeply 
convicted of sin as any man in that whole assembly. The 
arrows of- conviction had gone thoroughly home into my 
own soul. I went away from that place smothering and 
stifling my convictions as best I might. My pride and 
stubbornness came to my aid. I let no man see that I was 
disturbed in the slightest measure. Angry with myself for 
having come, I took the children and hurried away from the 
scene. We went back to the city of Atlanta. When we 
reached the Union Depot, I sent the children home to their 
mother, and went off and hunted up some of my dissipated 
companions. We furnished ourselves with liquor and cards, 
spending the evening in our club that night. I sat there 
with them that Sabbath evening and all the night through, 
debauching, gambling, blaspheming, trying with the most 
reckless desperation to sodden my nature and sink my soul 
into insensibility— to blur and blot out with that red fluid 
of hell, if possible, those pictures that memory had dragged 



-FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 591 

tip from my wasted life and was flashing before my vision 
like a very phantasmagoria of Pandemonium. But I could 
get no relief. The liquor would not take hold upon my 
system. That which had given me peace and surcease of 
sorrows before, now seemed to be perfectly impotent. My 
friends fled from me at last in consternation. They would 
remain with me no longer. 

All the next day, Monday, I was recklessly, riotously 
drunk on the streets of the city. It was not until far into- 
the hours of the early morning of Tuesday that I went home 
and tried to sleep. But it was a feverish, restless, uncertain 
effort, and at five o'clock, when the bar-rooms should have 
opened, I was up and out again. I would stand with the 
liquor poured out, ready to gulp it down, hoping that that 
last draught might bring oblivion. Then my hand would 
tremble and I would set the liquor down. My soul would 
cry out in silent agony, " O God, have mercy on me, a sin- 
ner!" It was about ten o'clock that day, as I sat in one of 
those saloons with my face in my hands, my straggling 
thoughts gathering around the suggestion that possibly the 
best thing I could do for myself and all who cared for me 
was to go into that back room and with a sudden pistol-shot 
end the whole miserable business. Just then the door swung 
open. A friend of mine stepped in, came down to where I 
was sitting, and laid his hand upon my shoulder. I looked 
up and recognized him. He said, u Sam, old fellow, your 
wife is outside in her carriage. She has been driving up and 
down the streets of the city looking for you, and her evident 
distress is causing all who know her to comment upon her 
condition. If I was in your place, old fellow, I would go 
out, go home with her, and put an end to this thing." I 
listened to him. I took in plainly the whole story, and sud- 
denly, without replying to him, my resolution took shape. 
I got up and walked steadily out of that bar-room, got into- 



592 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

the carriage with my wife, drove silently home, and when I 
got there went into a private room and began to think over 
my humiliated condition. Suddenly it seemed the fumes of 
liquor left my brain. My faculties became alert and active. 
I just seemed to lay hold upon every tangled thread of life and 
straighten it out, so that I saw my whole career from the 
very first conscious sins of my life down to that moment. 
As the miserable record burst upon me the gloom and despair 
that seized upon me were awful. It seemed as if the next 
whirl of my brain would bring madness and the awful plunge 
to death and hell. I cried out, " I am lost, I am lost! I am 
lost beyond the power of redemption!" But just then it 
seemed to me that I was rooted to my place. The phono- 
graph of memory turned rapidly backward over those seven- 
teen wasted years, until it came to the tender silver foil of 
youth on which my mother's tongue had indented the les- 
sons of heavenly truth. Her voice seemed to come back, in 
its soft and winning tones, from the golden shores to which 
she had gone before me. It sank down into the chambers of 
my soul and bid me, " Son, be of good cheer, and look away 
from your record of wretchedness. Fix your eyes and faith 
upon the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the 
world." But I shuddered at the very idea. I said, u No, 
no, no! Why suggest that to me? Others He may save, 
but me He cannot save!" For it seemed to me in that 
moment that my sins were so terrible and desperate that God 
Himself must turn from them in disgust. Yet the words of 
that faithful mother came back stronger and stronger still. 
The words of that plain preacher overleaped the two days of 
time and fifty miles of space and mingled with hers, and bid 
me "look and believe and be saved;" and at last I saw a ray 
of hope. I said, " Yes, why not? I have tried everything 
else in this world. I have tried all that resolution and effort 
on my own part, all that love and tears and prayer could 




Annie Frank Small. (Deceased 1888.) 



"FROM BAR-BOOM TO PULPIT." S93 

work on the part of friends and family. I have tried all that 
medical science and skill could offer. All of these things 
have been in vain, and now, if there be any power of salva- 
tion for one like me, it must be in the Son of God." I said, 
" I will go to Him. It can do me no harm if it does me no 
good. I would rather die at the foot of the cross, pleading 
for pardon, than to die drunken and debauched in the gut- 
ters and go to hell for ever." Suddenly I walked out of the 
room and went up stairs, stopping not to consult with wife 
or any one. Locking the door behind me, I got down in my 
library before a sofa. I buried my face in my hands, and 
there for four long, mortal hours had the most terrific battle 
in flesh and spirit, it seems to me, that a man could pass 
through and survive. I tried to get my sins before God, but 
I found they were more innumerable than the sands along the 
river-shore. I tried to compass them, so I could confess them, 
but I found they were as inaccessible as the leaves in the 
forest. At last I saw nothing I could do, no merit in my 
life, no white spot, no luminous line, not a single virtuous 
action, that I could bring and plead before God. At last I 
could only look up into the darkness and pray that for 
Christ's sake God would have mercy on my soul. 

At last, after that four hours' desperate struggle, when it 
seemed as if I must give up and be lost for ever, just as I was 
weak and fainting, there came back over me the refrain of 
the song which was my mother's daily consecration to Christ. 
Suddenly I threw my hands up. I said, 

"Here, Lord, I give myself away; 
'Tis all that I can do!" 

I fell upon the sofa and laid there insensible for a few min- 
utes. When I came to myself I was conscious of strange 
feelings that I could not understand. My brain was per- 
fectly clear. I understood all that had passed. Yet, having 
ss 



594 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

that singular feeling of numbness, I thought at first I was 
paralyzed — that the mental agony and physical torture com- 
bined had produced paralysis. But as I shook my arm and 
found I was not so stricken, I leaned back from the sofa and 
with a sigh of relief said, ' ' Thank God, I am not paralyzed. ' ' 

As I rested there, panting, catching my breath, rubbing 
my hands in an unmeaning sort of way, I cannot say when 
it was, but all at once I realized that my flesh was perfectly 
cool and natural. The fever had passed out of my brain and 
out of my flesh. My spirit was as placid and calm as the 
bosom of a mountain-lake with the first burst of the summer 
sun on it. I said, ' ' This is a strange feeling. I wonder 
what it means ?" Something seemed to say to me, as if from 
the very skies above me, "That is the peace of God that 
passeth understanding." At once a conviction came, 
stronger than proof of Holy Writ, and seized my soul. I 
leaped to my feet with sudden energy, and the words of 
praise and thanksgiving came unbidden to my lips. I said, 
"Thank- God, I am saved! I am saved! I am saved!" I 
knew it instantly, and have never had a doubt of it from 
that moment to this. 

I ran out of the room as quickly as I could go. I wanted 
to see my wife that moment, it seemed to me, more than 
ever in my life before. I ran down stairs and found her 
sitting in a chair with her face in her hands, weeping from 
grief. I raised her face out of her hands, brushed the tears 
out of her eyes, kissed her, and said, ' ' My precious wife, 
don't cry any more ; it is all right now. God for Christ's 
sake has forgiven my sins. I am going to make you the 
best husband a woman ever had, and make the children the 
best father Christ and God can make out of a man. ' ' She 
looked up into my face with a half-startled expression, then 
buried her face in her hands and cried worse than ever. I 
tried to get her to tell me what was the matter. She did 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPITr 595 

not seem to be able to speak. She could not realize that 
what I said was true. I have reason to thank God she did 
not, for I do not believe she could then have borne the full 
truth. She told me afterward that during those four hours 
she had been three times up to my room, had tried to get in, 
but could not make me hear, seemingly, though she could 
hear me groaning. Then at last it came over her that possi- 
bly I had gone in and tried to commit suicide, as I had so 
often threatened I would. She pictured me to herself lying 
there upon the floor in throes of agony w T ith a severed artery 
or with poison self-administered. She said she was in the 
greatest despair over the possibility of such a calamity when 
she heard me jump to my feet above her head. She heard 
me as I came hurriedly down the stairs. When I ran in, 
picked her face up, brushed away the tears, and spoke as I 
did, she said that while she understood what I said she could 
not comprehend what it meant. It flashed over her instantly 
that perhaps it was only the first enthusiasm and exaltation 
of that insanity that had been so often predicted. She 
thought I had gone mad, and it had taken a religious turn 
from my having been at that great religious meeting on the 
Sabbath before. She said that thought swept every hope 
from under her. But God on the instant put it into the 
hearts of my little children that it was true. I have under- 
stood since then that truly He reveals to babes that which 
the wise cannot comprehend. My little girl, just eleven 
years old, took her arms from around her mother's neck. 
She rushed up to me with the tears just leaping from her 
eyes, caught me by the hand, and said, u Papa, I believe it 
is so, and I thank God for it. ' ' She dropped upon her knees 
by the side of her chair. Her two little brothers, younger 
than she, knelt by her side, and together they prayed in 
their sobbing, broken accents, and thanked God that papa 
was going to be a good man arid a sober man again! 



596 -FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

I waited for them until they finished their prayer. I said 
to them, " Children, get your hats and bonnets and come 
with me. ' ' I took them in the carriage up town with me. 
My way opened before me then as plainly as ever a road 
opened before a man on the face of the earth. I knew my 
mother had dedicated me to God at His altar when I was a 
babe in arms. I knew that for thirty odd years she had 
held on to the horns of that altar with holy hands, praying 
that I might be converted and received into the service of 
God. She died without seeing her prayers answered, but 
confident that God would redeem his promise to the right- 
eous. In that moment of my redemption a conviction of 
what I ought to do came upon me irresistibly. I went out 
to the office of a friend who kept a printing establishment. 
I said to him, ' * Henry, I want you to print me some little 
circulars." I was looking over my papers to-day, and I 
found a couple of copies of that circular issued that day. 
Here is one of them (see next page). I circulated a 
couple of thousand of them, with the help of some little 
fellows, all through the streets of the city and in the cars 
as they went out into the suburbs. Then I went home to 
prepare for the exercises of the evening. My wife called 
my little boy Samuel out on the rear porch and said, ( c Son, 
where have you children been with your father ?' ' He had 
a bundle of those little circulars in his pocket that he had 
been distributing around. He pulled this bundle out and 
gave her one. She took it and looked at it. She read it, 
handed it back to him, but said nothing. I saw then she 
was not taking much stock in that enterprise just at that 
time. But we had our supper, and I took the children with 
me in the carriage. We went up to this place where I had 
advertised to appear. It was the most prominent place in 
the city of Atlanta, with electric lights flashing down, mak- 
ing it as bright as day. When I got there I found a great 




WILL PREACH THIS NIGHT, 

TUESDAY 

SEPTEMBER 15th, 



I 



At the corner of Marietta and Peacl* 
tree Streets, 

7:30 O'CLOCK 



FAC-SIMILE OF CIRCULAR. 



59T 



598 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

company of fellow-citizens had gathered simply to see what 
new freak Sam Small was going to be guilty of. They said 
he was on a great drunk ; there was no telling what he was 
going to do ; he had been to hear Jones, and probably he 
would get up a burlesque of Jones's sermon, but the drunker 
Small was the funnier he was, and it would not do not to be 
on hand and see what antics he was going to perform. So 
they all came out to see what was going to happen. 

I stood upon an improvised platform with my three little 
children behind me. They were the only backers I had in 
all creation that night. I read the fortieth Psalm. Then I 
briefly and rapidly sketched the salient incidents of my past 
career. I said to them, ' ' My fellow-citizens, it was not nec- 
essary that I should have called you out here in this unex- 
pected manner to-night simply for the purpose of rehearsing 
these unfortunate details of my past life; but I want to say to 
you that for all of these things God has brought me under 
conviction hy His Holy Spirit. For four hours to-day I have 
been before Him in honest confession and in humble sur- 
render; and I stand before you to-night to proclaim that I 
have the witness of God's Spirit that He has forgiven my 
sins and accepted me into His family." I said, " I want to 
make this proclamation of my new experience and of my 
new purpose as broad, as open, and as uncompromising as I 
have ever made any exhibition of my sin, wickedness, and 
shame in your midst." 

Just here I want to say I thank God every day that he gave 
me the impulse and the courage to go out and make that 
declaration that night. It sealed me, by the help of the Holy 
Spirit, to my Redeemer, so that from that day to this there 
has been a perfect confidence that Christ is with me. Other- 
wise, I believe the devil might have recaptured me and had 
me in hell long ago. 

I said to them, " I want you to be witnesses, too, in time 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 599 

and in eternity, that from this very moment until my dying 
day I put the world behind me. I sever every tie that binds 
me to it. I blot out every invitation it has ever given me to 
its honors and to its emoluments. I cross the bridee of 
decision to-night into the territory of the gospel, and here 
and now, under these silent stars, in the presence of you all, 
I solemnly dedicate myself, my time, my talents, and my all, 
to Him who has redeemed me with His most precious blood. ' ' 
I begged them to pray with me that I might be kept in that 
way. They took off their hats reverently while I offered my 
first public prayer to God. Then we dispersed, they going 
away with many cavilling doubts, thinking possibly it could 
not be true, and it was simply a drunken, mad freak with 
me. Some of my godless companions went into the very 
saloons where I had been with them in drinking and debauch- 
ery the night before, and posted bets as to how long Sam 
Small would stick. Some bet I would not stick a week, some 
said not two weeks, but, glory be to God, I am sticking yet! 
Yet, not I, but Christ, "who sticketh closer than a brother, " 
has kept me thus far, and He can and will keep me to the 
end! 

I went home the happiest man on the face of the earth, I 
thought, that night. When we got there we found that the 
Lord had been better to us than I thought He could be. He 
had gone to the sepulchre of my wife's buried love and hopes, 
had rolled away the stone from its mouth, had called in the 
life-giving accents that brought Lazarus from the dead, had 
bidden them to come forth and live again; and when we 
crossed the threshold of our home that night they were 
dancing in her eye and blooming in her cheek with all their 
pristine vigor and beauty. We gathered our children about 
us that night, erected our family altar, dedicated our home 
to God, and lay down to peaceful slumber. 

I slept the long, deep sleep of exhaustion, but awoke in the 



600 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

morning with a spirit of rejoicing. J3ut before I could frame 
my expression of thanksgiving there came swiftly, as if by 
an electric flash, that terrible appetite for strong drink. It 
seized hold upon me, surging through my veins like molten 
lava. The terrible burning craving renewed its pains. Then 
it seemed to me I would die if I did not go out, like some 
famished beast, in search of that which alone should satisfy 
this awful craving. As I lay there I held my hands tightly 
clenched together and my teeth tightly set, while that awful 
paroxysm of desire passed over me. It left me weak and 
trembling as a babe. I called my wife. She came into the 
room. When she saw me in that condition she was in con- 
sternation. She questioned whether I could have been mis- 
taken about my salvation the day before, but I said, ' ' No, 
my dear; I understand perfectly well what God did for me 
yesterday. I know that He saved me. That is all right." 
But I said, " It is this appetite."— -She said, "What are you 
going to do about it?" — I said, " I don't know but one thing 
I can do. ' r She said, ' ' What is that ?' '—I said, " To go back 
right up in there where I went yesterday." — She said, "I 
believe so, too. Go on, and may God bless you! I will pray 
for you. ' ' I went up stairs and locked the door behind me 
again. I got down before that old sofa, and for two hours I 
had that awful, mortal struggle over again, worse than the 
day before. That terrible desire for drink would swoop down 
upon me and almost drag me from my knees. The pain 
would go bounding through my brain, and it would seem to 
me as if every whirl of it meant eternal madness. I was in 
direst agony. The perspiration ran from me. My bones 
seemed as if they were cracking within me and my flesh was 
on fire. But I held on; I prayed on. Ofttimes I hardly knew 
what I was saying. 

At last, after two hours, I was so thoroughly weak and 
exhausted I could do no more, and I thought to myself, 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 6oi 

" I must soon give up." I talked to God as plainly and as 
earnestly as I would have talked to my own father. I said, 
* ' Lord, here I am in this helpless condition. You know 
what is the matter with me. I need not tell You how firmly 
I believe that You saved my soul from its sins yesterday, but, 
Lord, this terrible appetite is back with me. I am too weak 
after these seventeen years of sin, of struggle, and of service 
of the devil to fight this battle day by day. ' ' I said, ' l Lord, 
I know You healed the palsied man. I know You sent 
strength quivering into the withered arm. I know You 
unsealed the blind eyes, unstopped deaf ears, made the 
lame to run and leap for joy, and even called the dead back 
to life. Now, Lord, You can take this appetite away from 
me, too, if You will. I am going to stay and beg You until 
You do. ' ' I waited for an answer. I said, ' ' I will get a 
little more strength, and then pray again." As I leaned 
back from the sofa, faint from over-exertion and exhaustion, 
rubbing my hands in that unmeaning sort of way, there 
came to me suddenly, I do not know when, that full peace 
and ease I had had before. It ^eemed to me all at once I 
realized the fact that my brain was cool and clear, my facul- 
ties active, my flesh perfectly natural ; the perspiration had 
ceased, the fever was gone, the agony had passed away. I 
investigated that liquor question, and found I did not want 
any liquor. It seemed to me I had never touched liquor in 
my life. I said, " It is a strange kind of feeling, and I do 
not know what it means." Something suggested, "It is 
the same feeling you had yesterday." It was. The 
thought came instantly to me, " Does it not mean the same 
thing?" I jumped to my feet and said, "Thank God, it is 
gone ! it is gone !" 

I went out of that room that morning perfectly satisfied 
that the appetite for strong drink was gone ! And to-night 
I testify to you, my friends, conscious that I shall meet the 



602 "FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 

testimony at the judgment-seat of Christ as often as I have 
sent it ahead of me, that from that instant to this I have 
never had one pang of the appetite or a single disposition to 
go back to strong drink. 

When I found my deliverance thus complete, I went upon 
my knees in new consecration to Christ. I promised Him 
then and there that to my dying day I would testify before 
all the world, as grace and opportunity were given me, what 
a perfect, full, and uttermost Saviour He is, and that I 
would be found, if possible, always in the very front ranks 
of those who are, in the name of Christ, battling to deliver 
this land of ours from the terrible curse of strong drink — 
the devil's best friend and Christ's worst enemy ! In par- 
tial redemption of that pledge I have gone up and down the 
land these five years telling this personal experience. I do 
not make merchandise of it simply for dollars and cents. 
But I have brought it to you, as I have taken it to every 
other congregation, with prayer preceding it, as it shall 
follow it, that God's Holy Spirit may bless it to the help of 
some poor brother struggling with his sins and his appetites, 
that he may come to the Great Physician, and have not only 
his transgressions forgiven, but all of his diseases healed. 
I hope, too, it may prove a stimulus to the courage and con- 
science of every honest Christian man in America, causing 
him to come up to the help of the L,ord against this mighty 
enemy of His people, and join with that noble band of true, 
patriotic, cultured, Christian men whom God's own hand is 
marshalling from the rocky breasts of Maine to the Golden 
Gates of California, from the icy fringes of those Northern 
lakes down to where the Southern flowers bloom perennially 
and bathe their heads in the warm waters of the Mexic sea, 
— those men whom God is bringing out in answer to the 
prayers of our faithful mothers, wives, daughters, and sis- 
ters. Pinning the white ribbon of their consecration upon. 



"FROM BAR-ROOM TO PULPIT." 603 

their bosoms, they have gone into their secret closets, into 
their public assemblies, and sent up their prayers for the 
deliverance of the people from this curse, until, like white- 
winged, fluttering doves, those prayers have found the 
mercy-seat of the throne of God, sprinkling it with the 
tears and blood of their sufferings and sacrifices. One of 
these days the faithful sons of the Almighty God and His 
Son will go up to the ballot-boxes of this nation, and in 
those ballots, that 

"Fall as still 
As snow-flakes fall upon the sod, 
And execute the freeman's will 
As lightnings do the will of God," 

will write in the Constitution of America, once and for ever, 
that the liquor traffic must go from this land, never to return 
to plague God's people any more. 



